BROWN, Wilma "Elaine" (ADOLPHSON)

ADLOPHSON, BROWN, LANE, WEINBACH, HUMPHREY-BROWN, LUCAS, DERBY, WIRT, HESTER

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 10/23/2014 at 12:53:48

Obituary - Wilma "Elaine" (Adolphson) Brown
June 15, 1929 ~ December 23, 2008

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa

MASON CITY - Wilma "Elaine" Brown, 79, of Mason City died Tuesday (Dec. 23, 2008) at Muse Norris Hospice Inpatient Unit.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Monday, Dec. 29, at the First United Methodist Church, 119 S. Georgia Ave., with the Rev. Jo Frahm Watkins officiating. Interment will be in Memorial Park Cemetery.

Visitation will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 28, at the Major Erickson Funeral Home, 111 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Mason City.

Memorials may be directed to the American Cancer Society .

Elaine was born June 15, 1929, in Mediapolis, Iowa, the daughter of Carl Lyndahl and Wilma Jane (Lane) Adolphson. She graduated as valedictorian from Sperry High School in 1947 and went on to receive her teacher's certificate from Parsons College in Fairfield. She later began advanced studies at Iowa State Teachers College (now UNI) in Cedar Falls. Her love for children led her to teach country school in Sperry as well as kindergarten at Roosevelt in Mason City.

On June 19, 1960, she married James Simon Brown at the First United Methodist Church. For many years, she helped James on the farm before becoming the farm manager after his death in 1975.

She was a member of the First United Methodist Church, Phi Beta Kappa Society, The Pleasant Ridge Women's Club and the Extension Board of Supervisors.

She enjoyed gardening, cooking, traveling, crafts and spending time with her family and friends.

She is survived by her children, Timothy James Brown, of Mason City, Tom Brown and wife, Joy, of Mason City, Janine K. Brown and husband, Peter A. Weinbach, of Fairfield, Conn.; seven grandchildren: Eli Humphrey-Brown, Christopher Brown, James S. "Jamie" Brown II, Daniel Brown, Kayla Brown, Maxwell Weinbach and William Weinbach; five sisters: Frances Lucas of Phoenix, Ariz., Juanita Derby of Burlington, Kay Wirt of Mediapolis, Jan Hester of Burlington and Alice Gibson of Middletown.

She was preceded in death by her husband, James; her parents; and a step-father, Avery Dwight Adolphson.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, October of 2014