Hazel Roumel Brown

Hazel Roumel Morford Brown, known fondly as Roumel, Grandma Mel, or Ma Mel was born March 21, 1931 as the youngest of four children and only daughter to Hazel and Everett Morford in Newton, Kansas. Thrilled to finally have a little girl, her mother labored on her perfect "Shirley Temple" curls. In high school she found joy in all things music and was a participant in both band and orchestra. She also acted in several school plays. After graduating first in her class from Newton High School in 1949, she attended Wichita State University as a music major. She graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in music education and then taught music at Rose Hill, Kansas for two years.

While living there Roumel attended a church that really inspired her for evangelism. She moved to Los Angeles to attend evangelism training at the Soul Clinic, a facet of Fred Jordan ministries. Here she met Bob Brown. After a correspondence of letters while Bob was working at a newspaper in Arizona, they became engaged. During their engagement an immediate need opened up for directors at an orphanage in Japan, so Roumel and Bob moved up their wedding date and they were married June 22, 1958. The next day they were on a plane to Japan, stopping first in Hawaii for a three-day honeymoon. Christ Children's Home in Saiki, Japan would be their home for the next 5 years. In Japan, in addition to all of the Japanese children they loved and cared for, they welcomed Hazel Christine "Chris", Robert Everett "Bob", and Evangeline Roumel "Vangie" to their family.

In 1963 Roumel, Bob, and their children moved home from Japan and they became house parents at Grace Children's Home in Henderson, Nebraska where they lived until her husband's death in 1970. Then finding herself a single mother, she and her three children moved to DeLand, Florida in 1971 to be near her brother Weldon and his family.

In DeLand Roumel started the first Christian bookstore in town, as well as taught music in several different schools for the Volusia County School System. Over the years she taught vocal music to elementary children and Junior and Senior high schoolers, and also taught marching band. She was still involved with music after her retirement. She enjoyed playing in a saxophone trio and was often called on to play the shofar at church functions and prayer meetings.

Her daughter, Chris, became a family practice doctor with an emphasis on Medical Missions, and Roumel traveled to many of the places that Chris was working including Kenya and Australia. She loved to travel, and places Roumel visited included Japan, China, the Philippines, England, Switzerland, and Israel.

Roumel’s home was always open to her friends and family. She was known for her love of card games, crossword puzzles, and jigsaw puzzles, and she held weekly meetings at her house for games or Bible studies. Ministry was a vital part of her life. She worked as a church secretary for several years after she retired from teaching. She felt a great calling to pray for people, and her prayer ministry was something of great importance to her in her later years.

Roumel was preceded in death by her parents and three brothers, George, Weldon, and Galen Morford, as well as her beloved sister-in-law Vivian, her husband, Bob, and, tragically, also by her eldest daughter, Chris, in 2017.

She is survived by her son Bob, her daughter Vangie and son-in-law Craig Henderson, and her two grandchildren, Sarah Henderson, and Kevin Henderson.

Interment will be in Henderson, Nebraska next to her husband Robert Brown.