Mabel W. Brown

Mabel W. Brown, a long-time Geneseo attorney, died September 13, 2016, at the age of 99, at Hammond-Henry Hospital in Geneseo, IL. A funeral service celebrating her life will be held at 11:00 am Monday, September 19th at the First United Methodist Church in Geneseo, Illinois. Visitation will be 1 hour prior (10-11 am) to the service at the church. Cremation Rites will be accorded following the service and private inurnment will be in the Oakwood Cemetery in Geneseo. Vandemore Funeral Homes & Crematory is assisting the family with arrangements. Miss Brown would have appreciated contributions in her memory, in lieu of flowers, to the Geneseo Humane Society, First United Methodist Church, Geneseo, Illinois, or to any conservative Republican candidate running for political office.

Miss Brown was born on December 7, 1916, in Geneseo, Illinois the only child of Harry E. Brown and Mabel Welton Brown. She graduated from St. Katherine’s School, Davenport, Iowa, and then from Oberlin College in 1938. She graduated from the law school at the University of Chicago in 1941 and joined her father’s law practice which he had begun in 1895. Miss Brown practiced with her father until his death in 1944. Like her father, she considered the practice of law the second highest calling and she continued to practice until her death.

Miss Brown was enthusiastic about politics and she was a loyal benefactor and supporter of charities and her church. In earlier years she enjoyed traveling and playing bridge. For many years on the walk home from work she enjoyed dinner at The Cellar restaurant in Geneseo, and in recent years she also had many pleasant visits with friends to Pasteur Restaurant in Moline.

She was preceded in death by her parents and is survived by: her secretary, Betty Bodeen, her law partner, Roger Ray, office staff Becky Canfield, Ann Deitrick and Catherine Thompson; a number of cousins including Joanne Knabe, Plymouth, Minnesota, Jeffery H. Brown, Crofton, Maryland, and Roy W. Brown, Chillicothe, Ohio; and close friends George and Marsha Storm, Wes and Mary Harris, and Bob and Ann Schwieder.

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