A celebration of life for Harriet Cates Brown will be held at Alamo Cemetery on Saturday, September 25 at 11:30 a.m. Terry Drace and James Harry Jordan will officiate.
Harriet was the devoted wife of Ed Brown. October 23 will mark 45 years of marriage for Ed and Harriet.
It was on Monday, September 20 that Harriet passed, peacefully, at her home, following an illness of several weeks. She was born on August 1, 1939 in Maury City to Harry and Edna Riddick Cates. Two older sisters, Wanda and Martha, welcomed her into the world, and the three sisters maintained a life-long, loving bond with each other.
In 1957, Harriet graduated from Crockett High School in Maury City. She continued her education by attending Murray State University, where she received her bachelor’s degree. In the years following, Harriet would earn a Master’s in Business Administration, and then a post-Masters in Total Quality Management. Many Crockett County residents will remember her years serving the local Kellwood Corporation as personnel manager in the 1970s.
In her young adult years, Harriet taught Home Economics, first in Chicopee, Massachusetts and then at the U.S. Military Base School in Iraklion Crete, Greece. This was at the time when her first husband, Joe Lucas, was stationed there with the military. On September 25, 1964, they welcomed the birth of their daughter, Gidget, while they were assigned to Crete. It is a blessing that Harriet’s celebration of life will take place on Gidget’s birthday.
As Harriet matured, corporations began to realize her compassion for people, along with her impressive education credentials. As a result, she left teaching, and would eventually serve major businesses as Human Resources Director and Employee Relations. It was during the time that she was personnel director for Northern Telecom in Nashville, that she hired a young man named Edward Brown, and the rest of that story is history!
Once Ed and Harriet married, they joined together their children into a family. Gidget, Michael, Barry, and Rhonda grew up, watching Harriet maintain a full-time job, while still putting them first in all things.
When Ed and Harriet retired, they came “home” to Maury City, where they have lived, for many happy years, in the house they built on the Cates family property. With all the places Harriet ever lived and the experiences that she had, she never lost her love for her roots, her devotion to her children, nor her heart for the needs of others.
Harriet Brown was preceded in death by her parents, Harry and Edna Cates, her first husband, Joe Lucas, and her sister, Wanda Cates Jordan.
Along with Ed, Harriet is survived by her daughter, Gidget Lucas (Stil), her two stepsons, Michael Brown (Karen), and Barry Brown, her stepdaughter, Rhonda Brown, and her sister, Martha Drace (Terry). Grandchildren, great grands, nieces, nephews, and cousins are left with the legacy of this life full of grace, hard work, and love for others.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials for Harriet be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, or to a charity of the donor’s choice.
