[1] Born in Canon, Georgia, Owens received law degrees from Emory University (J.D.)
[3] When delegate Frank P. Moncure, a former Commonwealth attorney for Stafford County and who had represented both Prince William and Stafford Counties for more than two decades, announced his retirement in 1959 during the Massive Resistance crisis, Owens ran to succeed him.
As delegate, Owens worked with other Northern Virginia legislators to create Dulles Airport as well as George Mason University.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that reapportionment in Davis v. Mann (1964) as unconstitutionally disfavoring northern Virginia, reapportionment effective in the November 1965 election grouped Loudoun and Prince William counties as the 42nd house district; Owens continued to serve, now alongside Lucas D. Phillips for three terms until the 1971 election, when the district now renumbered the 20th received two additional delegates and William R. Murphy and Kenneth B. Rollins joined Owens and Phillips.
All three of the delegates changed after the 1975 elections when the district now designated the 41st linked Loudoun County to only the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park in Prince William County, and Floyd C. Bagley, Earl E. Bell and David G. Brickley were elected.