He was born in Cambria, Wisconsin, the son of Emma (née Davies) and David Morris Rowlands, of Welsh descent.
[1] On September 10, 1924, in Arkansas, he married Mary Allen Neal, who became an actress in her later years, and was known as Lady Rowlands.
They had two children: a son, David, and a daughter, Virginia, who is best known as the Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated actress Gena Rowlands.
[citation needed] Rowlands served in the Assembly from 1927 to 1933 and in the Senate from 1935 to 1937.
[2] Edwin Myrwyn Rowlands died in 1961 in Harris County, Texas, four days before his 60th birthday.