Claire Brown
With broken hearts, we announce that Claire Frances Brown, beloved sister, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother and friend passed away on April 4th 2025 after a short and devastating illness. Born in February, 1947 in Riverside California to the late John and Mary Louise Brown, she graduated from UC Santa Cruz and attained her Masters Degree from the University of Washington. She traveled extensively throughout South America, North America and Europe during her lifetime for both work and pleasure. This led to many memorable stories that she gleefully enjoyed sharing - and embellishing - to her grandchildren at opportune moments.
Claire was an avid reader, delighting in cozy mysteries. This spilled over into her love of puzzle solving, including jigsaws, math puzzles and her daily domination of the family at Wordle. In retirement, she filled the middle of her weeks with tap and line dance where she mostly turned the correct direction, and ended her weeks with her favorite badminton group, considering it a good match if she hit a perfect winning shot without having to bend over too much.
She will be lovingly remembered as relishing her coffee and lunch dates with friends and family, adventurous hikes with her grandchildren, her vast knowledge of flora and fauna, adoration for dancing of any kind, the beautiful quilts that she created, her love of sunrise shark tooth hunting at the beach, and her ability to produce an obscure crossword answer from thin air.
In passing, we are heartened that she will be free of her least favorite items including drones ruining her enjoyment of nature, any required mobile phone upgrades, the sound of gas leaf blowers, poison ivy encounters, books with poor grammar, and badly designed parking decks.
In addition to her parents, Claire is preceded in death by her brother Lloyd Brown. She is survived by her sister, Joanna Freeland, daughter Amber Farrelly (Eugene), son Mikal Joplin (Katherine), grandchildren John ‘Jack’ Farrelly and Bridget Farrelly, and many nieces and nephews. Her beloved grandchildren will continue to share their grandmother’s adventures for many years, likely with the embellishments.
A private family ceremony will be held in the summer. In lieu of flowers, please consider a direct donation to Wake County SPCA in her name to honor the many pets that brought Claire joy over the years.