Claudia Brownell

Claudia “Toy” Strite Brownell was born on September 11, 1937, in Hagerstown Maryland, to Samuel Clagett Strite and Claudia Brewer Strite. She passed away on October 13, 2024 at the age of 87, at Sundale Senior Living in The Woodlands, Texas. She was the granddaughter of Earl LeRoy Brewer, Governor of Mississippi, 1912 to 1916.

She is survived by her brother, Samuel “Tag” Strite (and Laurie); her children, Susan Brownell of St. Louis, Missouri, Robert Brownell, Jr. (and Helen) of Decatur, Georgia, and Lynda Brus (and Michael) of The Woodlands, Texas; nephews Samuel “Toby” Strite and Jeffrey Strite; and four grandchildren, Conor Brownell, Bridget Brownell, Meredith Brus, and Samuel Brus.

From a very young age, she acquired her passions for horses, dogs, sports, and outdoor activities. She spent happy summers horseback riding at Camp Strawderman in Edinburg, Virginia, until she graduated from Hagerstown High School in 1955. She was a standout on the girls’ half-court basketball team. She received her B.A. in Sociology from Duke University in 1959, winning the intramural championship in ping pong, and graduating in only three years (plus two summer semesters).

Toy and Robert “Bob” Brownell met at Duke and married in September 1958, before he began his military service. After several years as a Navy wife, a period that saw the births of Susan and Rob in the Bethesda Naval Hospital, they moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, for Bob to attend graduate school. During their time there, Lyn was born at the University of Virginia Hospital. Toy returned to her passion for horses, teaching riding lessons for Grover Vandevender at Foxfield Farm, and introducing her children to riding. She became a lifelong fan of U.Va. – which Susan and Rob, granddaughter Bridget, and daughter-in-law Helen later attended.

In 1968 the family moved to Lexington, Virginia, where she fulfilled her lifelong dream of having a horse farm. She had her own boarding stable and lesson program and, in the days before Title IX, her riding lessons were the only organized sports opportunities for girls in the area; she empowered many young women with a love of horses. She taught sociology for a few years at Southern Seminary Junior College for Women and became a fixture on the Virginia horse scene, hunting with the Rockbridge Hunt Club and taking her daughters to horse shows around the state.

After divorce, she moved with her children back to Hagerstown where she completed a Master’s degree in Special Education and taught in public schools. She later moved to Staunton, Virginia and spent her remaining career teaching at the The DeJarnette Center for Children and Adolescents, a state children's mental hospital. She loved her very challenging but rewarding work educating troubled teens. After her children left home, she got back into riding herself with a competitive drive that was at the time unusual in middle age. She competed with her beloved horse Heel Be Tuff in Virginia and at the All American Quarter Horse Congress and American Quarter Horse Association World Championships. She won several annual high point awards in hunter and jumper divisions in the Southwest Virginia Hunter Jumper Association.

In 1998 she retired from DeJarnette to move to Atlanta to help raise her grandchildren and take care of the horses on her daughter Lyn’s farm. She was a devoted grandmother, taking her grandchildren on Disney cruises, dude ranch trips, and their first international trips (to Greece). She also took part in many memorable family trips at home and abroad, including a thrilling trip to Ecuador with Tag and Laurie, organized by her nephew Jeff, and two trips around China with her daughter, Susan. She instilled her love of travel into all of her grandchildren.

She moved with Lyn and her family to The Woodlands, Texas in 2006, where she rode horses into her mid 70s and enjoyed hours of walking her dogs and playing poker with friends. Throughout her life she was devoted to her extended family. The pleasure she took from her pursuits and adventures added joy into family life.

Please consider a donation to Inspiration Ranch, a non-profit therapeutic riding program in The Woodlands, TX at https://www.inspirationranch.org/donors, “in Memory of Toy Brownell.”