Mary Barbara Browne

Mary Barbara Browne of Denver, Colorado passed from this life July 15, 2023. She is preceded in death by her sister, Susan Browne Newell, and parents, Col. Harrison and Valerie Browne. Mary Barbara is survived by her nieces, Sandy LaClave and Valerie Dommert, her nephew, Ken Newell, and grand nieces and nephews, Abby, Adam, Noah, and Reggie Dommert.

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on July 4, 1934, Mary Barbara spent most of her childhood in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was there she learned of her father’s capture in the Pacific during World War II and greeted him five years later upon his release in 1945. Together again, the family subsequently moved to San Antonio, Texas and several year later, Mary Barbara attended the University of Colorado at Boulder where she graduated in 1955.

An pioneer who blazed her own trail, Mary Barbara became a reporter with the Rocky Mountain News at a time when few women had careers, much less in a male-dominated field. Never married, she didn’t let being alone stop her from doing the things she loved: travelling throughout the United States, hunting, cross-country skiing, biking, and attending the theatre and opera. Though short in stature, her sister described her as the epitome of Shakespeare’s Hermia in Midsummer’s Night’s Dream: Though she be but little, she is fierce!

In her later years, Mary Barbara spent every Christmas with her sister, Susan, and brother-in-law, Donald Newell, in Indianapolis, getting to know her nieces and nephew, as well as her grand nieces and nephews. Though now gone, she leaves behind a legacy of determination and love of life. She is missed.