Grace Marie "Toots" Brown

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, July 31, 2021. From 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. at the Izaak Walton League, Davenport, IA. She will be buried on Monday, April 6th at Davenport Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, her family asks that you make a donation to the University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, 200 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA. 52242. Online condolences may be left at www.rungemortuary.com.

Toots was born on November 27, 1952 in Chicago, IL to Raymond and Marie Sleeth. She married her high school sweetheart, Windell Ray Brown, on August 29th, 1970 in Forrest, IL and they spent over 50 wonderful years together. She worked here and there over the years, but mainly, she devoted her life to her husband and to her daughter, Jennifer and to her legion of friends and family.

Toots enjoyed attending concerts, plays and performances of almost every kind. She loved to travel, she loved to dance and if you invited her to your party, she would arrive early to help you set up, and she stayed to the end to help you clean. Toots never met a stranger, and she made new friends everywhere she went, as the cashiers of her local HyVee can attest. She was known for her marathon phone conversations, her absurdly large Thanksgiving turkeys, her deep and abiding love of the Chicago Cubs and the Iowa Hawkeyes and her almost perfect attendance at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival.

She will be forever missed by her husband Windell, her daughter, Jennifer (John Crownover), her sister, Joyce Damron and her best friend since the third grade, Judy Gerwig. She will also be missed by quite literally scores of other people because pretty much everyone who ever met her, instantly loved her, She was just one of those people.

She was preceded in death by her mother, her father, her beloved brother, Raymond and an infant daughter, Gloria Jean.

Her family would like to thank Dr. Furqan and his team at the University of Iowa Cancer Center for the incredible care she received during her illness, and Carlos, Tracy, Abby and Rachelle from Compassus for their essential assistance during her time in home hospice.