Cowl died in Laredo at the age of ninety-six. Services were held on March 21, 2008, in Woodbury in Nassau County, New York. She was interred next to her husband at Farmingdale, a community near New York City..<ref>"Cowl funeral set Friday," ''Laredo Morning Times,'' March 19, 2008, p. 3A.</ref> Survivors included two sons, Anthony Cowl, a retired [[educator]] in [[Amsterdam]], the [[Netherlands]], and John Cowl, M.D., of Pembroke, Massachusetts]] granddaughter, Dr. Allison Cowl Nicoletti of Petersham, Massachusetts; and numerous nieces and nephews.<ref name=autogenerated1 />
Mary Lamar Leyendecker of Laredo, a long-term Cowl board member who was named the president of the association in 2015,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lmtonline.com/front-news/article_8eb1f858-68a1-11e5-b8d8-9bb4aa31d47f.html|title=Local rehab center announces new board president|publisher=''Laredo Morning Times''|date=October 2, 2015}}</ref> told ''The Laredo Morning Times'' that Cowl was "a true champion of the poor and people with physical disabilities. She was a true leader in the fight for human rights and fought for the rights of all people to live as dignified and independently as possible. She was an ageless and progressive thinker. ... She was always forward-thinking and kept up with what was good for patients. We're going to miss her so much."<ref name=autogenerated1 truechampiongone/>
Lillian Dickinson, a retired manager at the rehabilitation center who traveled to New York for Cowl's funeral services, in an interview with the ''Laredo Morning Times'', called her "a visionary for the community. ... she and I were idealistic and wanted to improve the quality of life for so many people. There were times I would make home visits and come into the center discouraged because of the poverty, and she would say, ‘No, no, let's sit down and talk about it.' So we would strategize and come up with ideas for solving problems."<ref name=truechampiongone/>