Ruth (Andersen) BROWN

BROWN, SHEWMAN, ANDERSEN, CHRISTIANSEN

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 9/6/2008 at 12:21:32

Pantagraph
Bloomington, IL
November 20, 1996

Ruth A. Brown, 66, of R.R. 11, Normal, died at 9:45 p.m. Monday (Nov. 18, 1996) at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, Peoria. A celebration of life service will be at 5 p.m. Saturday at Calvary United Methodist Church, Normal, the Rev. Tom Hamilton-Kenney and the Rev. Debbie Melzer officiating. A private graveside service will be Saturday at East Lawn Memorial Gardens, Bloomington. Visitation will be 5 to 9 p.m. Friday at the church. Metzler-Froelich Memorial Home, Bloomington, is in charge of arrangements. Memorials may be made to the Calvary United Methodist Church Building Fund, 814 Jersey Ave., Normal, IL 61761, or the Bloomington-Normal Emmaus Community, P.O. Box 3043, Bloomington, IL 61702-3043.

Survivors include her husband, Norman Brown; two sons, Blaine Brown, Dickenson, Texas; and Clinton Brown, Towanda; two daughters, Tannia Shewman, Sand Point, Idaho; and Laurine Brown, Normal; and one brother, Arne Andersen, Goldfield, Iowa. Also surviving are two daughters-in-law, Susan Brown, Dickenson, Texas; and Debbie Brown, Towanda; one son-in-law, Bill Shewman, Sand Point, Idaho; and six grandchildren, Nada, Melea and Dane Shewman, all of Sand Point, Idaho; Shelby and Preston Brown, both of Towanda; and Cheylane Brown, Normal. Her parents preceded her in death.

Mrs. Brown was born Jan. 19, 1930, at Ottosen, Iowa, the daughter of Danish immigrants Nicklaus and Gudren Christiansen Andersen. She married Norman Brown on Aug. 16, 1952, in Hardy, Iowa. She was a member of Calvary United Methodist Church, Normal, where she currently served in ushering and in Nurture Ministry. She has served actively in the interdenominational Christian Walk to Emmaus ministry in Illinois since 1982, including prison and youth outreach programs. Ruth has the gift of hospitality. She is a member of Alpha Gamma Delta Sorority Alumni Association from Iowa State University and a member of the Professional Home Economists of McLean County. She was a graduate of Renwick, Iowa, High School in 1947 and a graduate of Iowa State University in 1951 with a degree in home economics education. Mrs. Brown has been employed by her family's Highland Properties apartment business, which they operated out of their home for many years. She had lived in seven states and in Europe during her husband's Air Force career before moving to Bloomington-Normal in 1973.