Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 19, 1993 TAG: 9310190133
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Brown, 79, a well-known Roanoke Valley jazz musician who played on local television through much of the 1950s, died Saturday at a Salem hospital. At his funeral Wednesday, music will be provided by a Dixieland Jazz band put together by some of his friends.
"Everybody who knew my husband connected him with music," Glenna, his wife of 55 years, said. "It'll be very appropriate."
"Brownie" Brown, a Culpeper native, grew up in a musical family. His father played the fiddle. Brown took up the rhythm guitar, played square dances on the Roanoke City Market for a while and later switched to the drums and jazz.
He played on "Club 88" on WSLS and later played on "Saturday Session" on WDBJ. At one point, he was on "for a half-hour three nights a week and an hour on Saturday. I saw him more on television than I did at home," Glenna Brown joked.
Later he formed the Brownie B. Trio, which was the house band at the Shenandoah Club, and played private gatherings in and around the Roanoke Valley.
Brown, a Navy veteran, was a machinist at Gardner Denver for 24 years. He was a deacon in First Christian Church in Salem.
He quit playing the drums a decade or so ago - ending a music career that spanned five decades. Glenna Browns says he continued to listen to music - his stereo was always set up so he could push a button and tape any song he liked from the radio. "Music was right with him till the end," she says.
by CNB