Obituary of Dovie Brown

Dovie Lou (Perdue) Brown was born October 9, 1925 to Mittie Lee (Thompson) and Albert Perdue in Lindale, Texas and left this life for her eternal home on Dec. 26, 2010 in Denver, Co after an extended illness. She grew up on a share cropping farm helping to pick blackberries, watermelon, and cotton wearing a big bonnet and long sleeves to protect her skin. In high school, she enjoyed playing competitive basketball and graduated at age 17. She set off for Dallas on the bus to get a job. Her father had given her $20 and 1 week to find work or return to the farm. With that as her incentive, she immediately took a job at the Texas Textbook Depository and moved in with her cousin Delphia and husband Richard. Later, she got a better job at the phone company and lived in a boarding house with her cousin Nell Alexander, whose husband “Shorty” was away in the service. She met a handsome soldier and the love of her life, Olen, at a dance club in Dallas. After a 2 month courtship, they were married in Delphia & Richard’s living room on July 21, 1945 and moved to Paris, Texas, where Olen was stationed after returning from serving in the Army Pacific Campaign of WWII. When Olen was discharged, they rode the train to Pueblo where Olen’s sister and her husband Poe Ballard met them and drove them to Springfield to meet the rest of Olen’s big and wonderful family. They were blessed with two daughters, Deborah Jane and Charlotte Ann. Dovie was an excellent seamstress and spent many hours lovingly creating ruffled dresses for her daughters and their dolls. Later she blessed her granddaughter Heather with trunk loads of clothes for her Barbies. Some of her Barbie doll creations are on display in the Doll House at Old Town. When the girls became school age, Dovie took a job as the secretary for the Superintendent of Springfield’s Public School. She often substituted for teachers and was proud of the fact that they wanted her to take their classes because she always had the class under control. In 1964, due to a job promotion for Olen, the family moved to Burlington, where Dovie’s experience enabled her to get a job as a secretary for the high school principal. She loved working with the senior girls who worked as aides in the office. When Dovie’s girls were busy with high school, she worked part-time for the C.S.U. Agronomy office. Her part time job provided money that helped put the two girls through college. She wanted the girls to have a college education and was very proud of their work in the Burlington school system. Dovie and Olen enjoyed traveling together to visit family in Texas, business trips for the gas company and as volunteers with the Welcome Center. Shortly after celebrating 60 years of a wonderful marriage in 2005, Olen went to be with the Lord Dovie accepted Christ as her savior as a young girl in the Lindale Baptist Church and transferred her membership to the Methodist Church when she married Olen. God gave Dovie the gift of unconditional love which she poured out on her family and friends. This gift became a lesson on love to all who knew her. Dovie and Olen were active members in both of the communities they lived in where she worked on various church committees and U.M.W. She spent many happy hours as a member of the Burlington Women’s Club and in her years since retirement, Dovie volunteered at the Welcome Center, the Senior Center and took an active role in R.S.V.P. where she was always ready to shred papers or cut out laminated classroom articles for her daughters. She will always be remembered for the delicious banana bread that she enjoyed sharing with family and friends and the loving open doors for the needs of her children and grandchildren. Dovie’s unconditional love included taking care of sick grandkids, providing a lunch stop, a place for the grandkids and their friends to ‘hang out’, and a listening ear for any of their problems. She always said she had the two best son-in-laws anyone could ever ask for and would jokingly tell them “thank you til you’re better paid” for all the little things they did for her. Because of growing up with few luxuries, Dovie began collecting dolls and displaying them in her home with each bringing pride and enjoyment to both Olen and her. Some of her greatest joys in the past few years include watching her grandchildren marry and have families, enjoying their visits, providing the great grandkids with fresh baked cookies and a box of toys. She enjoyed attending the yearly Brown/Truax family reunions at Phil and Roberta’s where she watched her loving family grow and have fun together. She loved going to coffee and lunch and church with friends. The last few years, she spent many happy hours with a dear friend, Audrey Lee, who was always ready for a lively game of Skip Bo or a trip to the dollar store. She was preceded in death by her husband, Olen; her parents and in-laws, Warren and Maymie Brown; brother and sister in-laws, George Brown, Orville and Agnes Brown, Reed (Bunny)Brown, Jack Truax, Ruby and Lon Winters, Ruth and Carl Long, and Poe Ballard; nephews Vernon Winters and Gary Pat, wife, Helen, and sons, Steve, Larry, and Kenny Long. She is survived by her sister Mary and husband Randall Martin of Shattuck, Ok. and daughters, Debbie and husband, Carlyle James; Charlotte and husband, Terry James of Burlington. She leaves her grandchildren, Heather and husband John Howe of Glenwood Springs; Codey and wife, Amy James of Denver; Aaron and wife Liz James of Elizabeth; and Teig James of Aurora and her great-grandchildren, Tristen, Hunter, Caden Howe of Glenwood and Dovie James of Denver. She will also be missed by her many nieces and nephews and a host of other relatives and friends.