Joan Lucille ""Precious"" Brown

Joan Lucille ""Precious"" Brown 83, of Lakewood (Belmar), CO, passed away peacefully at her home on August 9, 2015. As Regal As Any Queen My Dearest Special Joanie Reno, NV… Along with all the myriad other…she was also beautiful. Both inside and out. Yes, we lost Joanie most unexpectedly. Yet, we will always keep her in our hearts. No more than a thought or two away. Joan Lund Berry Brown…""Special Beyond Words."" My friend for more than a half century and counting. We visited by phone just the day prior to her leaving us. She was her true and always spirited self. Had just returned from more trekking planet Earth. She was, as usual, champagne with all the foam and bubbles. Joan did, however, mention she was a bit fatigued. That may have been a clue something was amiss. Less than thirty hours later, my friend closed her eyes and entered the great beyond. While bathing and preparing for a sweet night of slumber. To know Joan Lund was to love her. Pure and simple truth. A 1949 LHS graduate she had lead the Lusk Tiger Marching Band with class and aplomb. After graduation and off to Laramie, Joan likewise lead the Cowboy Marching Band with the same grace and expertise. Rewards and honors came from all directions. In fact she returned to perform it all again at 60 years of age. To reassure herself she still ""had it."" During the U of W homecoming football classic halftime entertainment. Casper's own Lynne Cheney, former United States Second Lady, gave Joan every praise. The former Vice President's wife candidly admitted she herself a poor second to Joan's talent and expertise as a baton twirling artist. And, Lynne was far from being a slouch in that area. Had the rules not changed, Joan would have gone to Atlantic City as Miss Wyoming. Probably would have won that crown of all crowns. A few years later she settled for first runner up as Mrs.America…that year was 1967. She would have been that champion also, but was offered the choice, and chose to be first runner up. This allowed her a full year of intense globe trotting as a USAmbassador for promoting the ""Federal Savings Bond Program."" Yes, she stepped aside for another as a matter of choice. Till now, a closely guarded secret. Known only to a very few of us. Even half way through her ninth decade, she thought of herself as hardly more than a college coed. Her own mother had lived to nearly 103. She expected the same longevity would bless her life. In all the years and decades I only saw her smile and laugh. Negativity of any amount was totally foreign for that gal…not even the most minute amount. She met Jim Brown on a flight to the Orient. They both, almost immediately, fell head over heals. A second chance at marital bliss. Decades together brought only enjoyment and fulfillment for them both. Jim passed on a few years back. Setting her own sadness aside Joan hit the road again…traveling would be a healing balm to wash away the hurt. Visiting South America, the Far East and beyond, Russia, Scandinavia and all of central Europe. You name it and Joanie's been there. Often more than once. Her most recent trip was much more simple. Alaska with her friend Kay and a group from Joan's beloved ""Mile High Church"" in Denver. This proved to be her last hurrah. Except for that mystical greatest adventure of all. The one you and I have yet to take. She will rest in peace next to Jim. At least that mortal part of her. A huge facet of this lady's life contentment was a simple result of love for her fellow man. I not once ever heard her capriciously criticize another. She saw only the good. If only we had more like her. Total world peace would be a reality. My dear friend leaves two daughters and a son. A small raft full of grandkids. However, this ""Daze and Knights"" isn't about them. Joan loved and adored, and often helped support each one, well into their adulthood. Just another part of being a special Mom and Grandmother. There remains still an enormous number of those even as myself that have been comforted, supported and encouraged by the efforts of this always class act lady. Joan and brother John spent their public school years in near a dozen Wyoming towns. From Cody to Lusk with so many places in between. Their father, employed within the telephone industry, was constantly on the move. Her longest tenure at any school…four years at old Lusk High. We were so fortunate to have her Luskwise! My friend was smart. Bright as any wattage measurable. Could have excelled at any endeavor and at any level. Would even had made a great political leader. I had the awesome pleasure of watching her develop and mature since the eighth grade. Often from a distance, other times up close. Regal of bearing always. She understood…always anxious and willing to listen. Yet, wise beyond her years. Totally obvious even from an early age. I'll miss Mrs. Brown as a friend and as a friend of most others. No more a unique and special lady has seldom come along. Or, may again. This George remains today richer in so many ways for having known ""Joanie Lund."" She easily and with total grace helped make me love life even more than I would have. A child of God, without question. The phrase, ""And God Created Woman"" was a perfect focus of my dear friend. Finally, for those of you that never had the pleasure or opportunity to know Joan…please trust me. She was one, not in a million, but in multi-millions. Her appreciation of each day and her love for those that little more than passed in the night. She was a totally great addition to all the good things given us by the Almighty. May you rest in total peace dear one. No one was ever more deserving than yourself. This morning I thought about this unquestioned truism. Today Heaven is a nicer place since she arrived. Word of Joan's passing spread like wildfire across Wyoming, Colorado and beyond. The moment I received the call, I placed my own to another of her dear friends. Now retired Senator Alan Simpson and his lovely wife Anne at their home in Cody. I was kindly cut off after I told the Senator it was George on the line from Reno. Alan's immediate response…""George, say nothing more. Anne and I have already heard."" Joan Lund Berry Brown is going to be missed by just so many. Her family, this writer, Senator and Mrs. Simpson, her dear friend John who resides in St. Louis already past 90 years of age. A multitude of others too numerous to even try to estimate. Joan Lucille Lund Berry Brown, 83, passed away peacefully, yet unexpectedly, at her home in Lakewood, CO, on August 9, 2015. Joan is survived by her three children, Carol, Paul, and Jamie, their spouses Son-in-Law Michael and Daughter-in-Law Marta, and seven grandchildren: Adam, Aaron, Cody, Drew, Gillian, Cheyenne, and Julieta. Joan was a Wyoming native, with deep connections to Lusk and stayed active with lifelong friends throughout the State. Joan is perhaps best remembered for having represented Wyoming in the 1966 Mrs. America Contest where she was 1st runner-up and served the following year as Mrs. United States Savings Bonds. In this role, Joan toured the United States and over-seas military bases handing out miniature ""W"" (for Wyoming) branding irons to dignitaries while drumming up support for U.S. Savings Bonds. Joan grew up in the 1930's and 40's attending 13 different schools across Wyoming. Her father, Carl Lund, was a crew chief with the Bell Telephone Company setting the original telephone lines statewide. In the '50s, as a UW Pi Beta Phi sister, Joan was head drum majorette. Later in life, she was fond of recalling the Cowboy win at the 1950 Gator Bowl and her awakening as an Equality State young woman to the injustices of the Segregation Era South on the team's train trip to Florida. Joan married Jim Berry of Newcastle in 1952, shortly thereafter began a family, and moved back to Lusk, where the two of them and their young children participated in the outrageous Lusk Melodrama troupe. The Lusk Melodrama represented Wyoming at the 1964 Seattle World's Fair, and the show was such a hit that the Wyoming Pavilion in the USA State Pavilion area was second in visitor attendance only to Utah, featuring the entire Mormon Tabernacle Choir! The 1970's saw great changes in Joan's life, which included children leaving the nest, and a move to California where she married Jim Brown and developed a deepening interest in spiritual pursuits. Joan's husband, aerospace executive James P. Brown, passed away in 2003. Since his passing, Joan had been residing close to family in Lakewood, CO, making frequent trips to her beloved Wyoming. Joan was active in the PEO, Episcopal Church, Republican Party, and the non-denominational Science of Mind Church. She will be laid to rest in Pauma Valley, California, where she had lived the happy retirement years of Mr. Brown and where Joan had maintained one of her many close circles of friends. A Celebration of Life Service is scheduled for Saturday, 8/29/15, 10:00 AM, at the Mile Hi Church, 9077 W. Alameda Ave., Lakewood, CO 80226 with a follow-up party, as per Joan's wishes, at the Rolling Hills Country Club, 15707 W 26th Ave, Golden, CO 8040, (303) 279-3334. Due to the number of Joan's lifelong and more recent friends, and as a send-off in the way that Joan would have wished, please RSVP to: preciouscelebration@gmail.com or the Joan Brown Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/joan.brown.5473?fref=ts or directly to Joan's daughter, Jamie Vance: (720) 318-6997 We are requesting that everyone who has a special memory of a time with Joan, submit it and your name to us no later than Sunday August 23rd. we will be composing a book that we can give to everyone to honor her memory. Please send your story to the gmail address above or: Jamie Vance 6155 West Harvard Drive, Lakewood, CO 80227 In lieu of flowers, please make donations in Joan Brown's name for the Alzheimer's Association: ALZ.org Thank you, Carol, Paul, and Jamie Obit Photo: Joan Berry, Mrs Wyoming branding San Diego Mayor at Mrs. America Contest, 1966