Mr. Ethel Deloris Brown

Full Circle... My Mom would say that her life came full circle ........ Ethel Deloris Brown was the seventh of eight children born from the parents of Timothy and Bernice Hanna on May 19, 1934; she was the youngest girl, a daddy's girl living on the eastside of Detroit. In 1952, Ethel graduated from Commerce High School where she learned to type and take shorthand. Thereafter, she found her first job working at the Michigan Chronicle as a secretary. The year of 1955 Ethel, wanting more out of life joined the WAC, (the Women's Army Corps) where she served for two years as a clerk typist and traveled around the world. In the midst of her travels, she met a PFC, (private first class) Leonard Leroy Brown who was also serving his country in the Army. They met in Paris, France and he was also from Detroit, MI, they were engaged after three months and got married a year later. In 1957, Ethel received the Good Conduct medal for serving as an E-1 and received an honorable discharge after two years in the army and married Mr. Brown in 1958. Within the years that followed they started their family and had four children and as soon as the youngest was old enough, Ethel went back to work and school to be an example for her children to always reach higher and the only way to do so was through an education. My mother had three Associate degrees which she was very proud of; they were: ministerial studies, elementary education and English. Her dream was to teach and that she did at church and at home. Anything my mother wanted to do she asked God for it and He made it happen for her. She wanted to model and the opportunity arose, a one-time gig to help out a friend she modeled clothes to potential customers in New York, she wanted to be a debutante; "coming of age" party for girls and she became one when she was 18; she painted a portrait of her youngest child; wrote poetry and a children's book for and about her youngest granddaughter and grandson; she created a song for each one of her children and crocheted doilies as a hobby and taught her daughters the same skill. My mother loved the opera and the theatre and she loved to sing which she mostly did while cooking or crocheting. In 1974, Ethel came back to Detroit, this completed her circle and made a home for her and her kids. For 32 years she worked for the Board of Education as a janitor for the first year and a secretary for 31 years. My mother has now completed her circle of life on this earth, January 21, 2014 and is now in the arms of her heavenly Father and her daddy. My mother, a sweet woman, she will truly be missed by all who knew her.

Mr. Ethel Deloris Brown

May 19, 1934 - January 21, 2014