“99 Years with a Smile” was the title of a feature story in the IJN’s Generations, June 26, 2015. For 99 years — and the three since — that smile belonged to Bess Brown, a most pleasant and upbeat personality in our community from the time she moved to Colorado in 1964 until her passing on the first day of Rosh Hashanah last week.
Bess Brown was a wife, mother, grandmother, schoolteacher and community volunteer. Organizations such as ORT, JFS and her synagogue sisterhood were the beneficiaries of her positive attitude and can-do spirit. In her later years, she moved to Kavod Senior Life, making the transition from independent to assisted living with grace and with appreciation for the assistance.
During her 102 years, Bess Brown acknowledged many wars, natural disasters and other tragedies, but her naturally optimistic personality compelled her to focus on all of the wonderful things in her life and in our world, including the marvels of technology. In 2015, she told a young intern, “They say the world is in such bad shape, but you have to take the good with the bad. And I think the good is really incredible.”
Bess was right. She was really incredible, too.
Copyright © 2017 by the Intermountain Jewish News
