Letha “Lea” Brown passed at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 23, 2013, with family at her bedside at Dionne Commons in Brunswick. She joins her husband of 67 years, Harold, who passed in February 2012. Born Letha Mark in St. Joseph, Mo., on April 22, 1921, her death followed a long and painful struggle in Hospice which started in October. She held on until her granddaughter Clara, with whom she shared a special bond, was able to rush home to be at her bedside. It seemed she knowingly brought the whole family together for Christmas.

Lea’s strength and strong will manifested itself over the past two months. She had to be strong to come to Georgetown in 1945, expecting her first child, and finding out the closest yearround residents were two miles up a dirt road. Her children remember the story she and Harold told of the first time coming into the driveway on Kennebec Point and having Winter Flounder drop at their feet. Looking up they saw the Bald Eagle chasing the Osprey that dropped it. The best part of the story is they ate it!

She adapted to life “at the end of the earth” by immersing herself into family and community life in Georgetown. Unlike today, it was then a place of a few intertwined year-round families with a century or two of ties to the Island. It was a long way to Town (Bath) and getting snowed in was common, mostly because the plows were World War II relics. In contrast, every July and August the Point changed to a colony of “Summer People” and Lea sometimes chafed at that change.

She was a classically trained pianist and Lea and a few others in town organized Dances, Minstrel Shows, and School events where she could play any song that anyone wanted to hear. She also played piano, and later the organ, for the choir at both the Georgetown and the Five Island churches. When Lea practiced, anyone within a mile would know because she had her organ turned up all the way!

Her sense of family was strong. While she didn’t go back often, she always talked about “back Home” in Missouri. Sunday dinners were a mainstay and Lea could cook. That love of cooking has been passed along. Her children’s friends loved to come to those dinners and some even raided the refrigerator when they weren’t invited. She was always ready to baby sit her grandchildren. Lea leaves so many good memories for so many people.

Lea is survived by her son Bud Brown and his wife Sally and daughter Clara; daughter Cathy Collins, her husband Charlie, their children Jon and Tim, and Jennifer and Jen’s sons Charles, Noah, and Jacob Beaulieu; and Holly Moore, her husband David, and their children David and Sarah.

There will be no visiting hours. The service will be at 10 Saturday morning Dec. 28 at the Desmond Funeral Home at 638 High St. in Bath.

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