One of Longboat’s finest friends, Marjorie R. Brown, dies
Jim and Marjorie Brown at their 60th wedding anniversary.
Longboat Key has lost a dear friend.
Marjorie R. Brown of Longboat Key, housewife, artist, lay church leader, fisher-woman and political activist, died Saturday, April 3, at her home with her husband of 62-years and children at her side. She was 89.
The wife of Jim Brown, four-term mayor of Longboat Key and currently a Sarasota Herald Tribune columnist, she managed all six of his political campaigns – including for County Commission, State House and State Senate, as well as the Longboat Town Commission.
“Anyone who knew or worked with Jim Brown always was aware that Jim was just a part of the package. Marge was not only a wife and mother, but also a partner, confidante and advisor. She will be missed,” said Al Green, who served alongside Jim on the Longboat Key Commission.
Jim and Marjorie met when they were both 26 years old, and fell in love almost immediately. Jim proposed one week later, and Marge would laugh, “I thought he would never ask.”
But the story of Jim and Marge’s relationship is one of sharing a life that spans from the trials of the great dustbowl, raising three children, and keeping open and constant communication on a daily basis. The reason they stayed together so long is also perhaps due to the fact that both their parents remained married throughout their lives.
The couple first came to Longboat Key in the early 1960s, but did not buy their property in Country Club Shores until 1976 when they paid $65,000 for the canal front home they lived in before moving recently to Windward Bay.
“Many of her activities centered around her faith and her church” said Rev. Fr. Edward Pick, Pastor Emeritus of St Mary, Star of the Sea.
Together, the couple revived the St. Jude gourmet luncheon on Longboat, which has become the island’s largest annual charity event with a thousand or more patrons each year. She also served three years as its chair.
Mrs. Brown was a founding mother and past president of St. Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church women’s guild and also a Eucharistic Minister. Mary Elizabeth Carey, a church member and also a past president and friend, says Marge was the kindest woman she has ever known.
“She took a personal interest in the well being of all of her friends,” said Carey, “She went out of her way to do acts of kindness for others.”
That quality made an impression on most everyone who came into contact with Mrs. Brown. Hal Lenobel, Town commissioner and long-time friend of the Brown’s, described Marjorie as a philosopher filled with worldly wisdom.
“Her wisdom was optimistic, despite the many challenges to her happiness she faced along the way. She knew that tough times don’t last, but tough people do. In the end she knew that kindness is all that matters. When one door closes, another door opens. Never has a person come into this world with so little and left with so much. She shall be missed,” Said Lenobel.
Mrs. Brown also was president of Country Club Shores Unit III Association, president of the Striking Girls Bowling League in Sarasota and a captain in both the Sarasota County Heart and Cancer campaigns.
For many years she probably was best known as the “fisherwoman of Longboat Key,” going out daily, alone in her boat and working the sandbars off Country Club Shores, catching fish when no one else could. Even professional captains would often come and anchor beside her.
As a campaign manager one of her most successful stunts was dressing as Pierrot the clown, strapping a tray of brownies she had made over her shoulders, and moving through the audience at a political rally with a sign: “Have a brownie on Brown.”
“If she’d just been able to make enough brownies I’d have won that election,” her husband would say.
Carol Fischbein, current guild president, comments that Marge was artistically talented. She was known on Longboat for her crafts and watercolors, selling many of the paintings at the Star of the Sea Guild’s annual bazaar and donating the proceeds to the Guild.
Mrs. Brown was born in Grand Rapids MI on Oct. 27, 1920, grew up in Jackson MI and was a well known charitable and club leader there. She also lived in Ypsilanti, Saginaw and Ann Arbor, MI, before coming to Longboat Key in 1976.
Services will be held at St. Mary’s on Longboat Thursday at 11 a.m. Donations may be made to the St. Jude Luncheon c/o of the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key or the Tidewell Hospice of Sarasota.
Surviving beside the husband are two sons, James III, of San Diego CA, and Charles J., Arlington VA; a daughter, Victoria Rico, Rohnert Park CA; a sister, Mrs. Hugh Lee, Danbury CT; a sister-in-law, Mrs. William Schneder, Roswell, NM; 13 grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren.
Readers can comment or react below. To read in print, pick up a copy of Friday’s April 9 Longboat Key News. Email Steve Reid at sreid@lbknews.com.
