Marian J. Brown

Marian Jane Brown, 82, of Washington, died Friday, April 7, 2017, in the Washington County Hospital in Washington.

Celebration of life services will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, April. 14, at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Washington, where the family will receive friends that morning from 9:30 until 10 a.m. The Rev. Maureen Howard will be officiating. Burial will be at Elm Grove Cemetery in Washington. A general memorial has been established.

Mrs. Brown was born June 30, 1934, in Waverly, the daughter of Earl and Juanita (Heuser) Graf. She married Gerald F. Brown on Sept. 1, 1956, at the Evangelical Lutheran Church Headquarters in Minneapolis, Minn. After her husband?s retirement as a pastor, the couple moved to Washington.

She graduated from Waverly high School, attended Wartburg College, and graduated from Austin State Junior College in Austin, Minnesota. As a pastor?s wife she served with her husband at seven different churches over her lifetime. With her love for God and her warm hospitality, she welcomed many into her home. She was also a homemaker for many years and worked caring for people at a Cerebral Palsy Center for children, as Home Health Aide and as director of the Area Agency on Aging. She always found the good in people and had a great sense of humor. She enjoyed crafts, canning and sewing. She was known as a great cook and truly enjoyed being a wife, mother and grandmother.

Surviving are four children, Cynthia Brown-Smith of Washington, Stuart Brown and wife Tracy of Wausau, Wisconsin, Helen Clubb and husband Jeff of Keswick, and Dion Brown and wife Carmencita of West Des Moines; 11 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; one sister, Coreen Hein and husband Richard of Marion; and one brother, Keith Graf of St. Joe, Arkansas.

She was preceded in death by her parents; and her husband, in 2014.