Eva Brown

Eva Jo Brown, a truly unique, free-spirited, independent, bold and determined woman, wife and mother born April 5, 1934 to Mildred (Taylor) Mailes and Alphonso A. Mailes Sr., in Indianapolis, Indiana.

After her mother died Eva Jo and her brother Alphonso A. Mailes, Jr. (Sonny) were raised mostly in Marion, Indiana with her maternal grandmother and her great aunt. When she was in high school, she participated in track and field and she also loved to roller skate and play baseball (Dad said she was good at baseball because she was left-handed and had a low center of gravity). Eva Jo graduated from Marion High School in 1952. Eva Jo was baptized at an early age and was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church.

Growing up Eva Jo spent a lot of time in Indianapolis with her maternal aunt Marie (Taylor) Bartee and her family. It was in Indianapolis that she was introduced to the man she would marry. She said when she met Dad she knew he was the man she was going to marry and that’s what she did; on September 25, 1954. They were married until his death on November 22, 1995, and to that marriage were born three children, Linda, Anthony and Kimberly. She always said she was a one-woman man and that man was James Wendell Brown.

Eva Jo worked in the payroll division in the Army Finance Center at Fort Benjamin Harrison, retiring in 1989 after 33 years of service. She enjoyed her work and cherished the lifelong friendships made there.

Eva Jo learned to sew as a child and she was a fabulous seamstress. She made most of the school clothes for her daughters. Her house was often filled with fabric and patterns for sewing projects. Eva Jo will be remembered by her family for how stylishly she dressed. Her favorite color was navy blue, but her family remembers a cream colored coat with three-quarter length sleeves, and a gorgeous purple sheath dress with buttons that seemed to change colors and sparkle when she moved. She also crocheted, quilted, and knitted.

Eva Jo was a good cook although she was not the most patient cook. She was often frustrated by homemade rolls that would not rise but her Sunday dinners and the holiday meals will always be remembered for the feasts that they were.

Eva Jo was good at most kinds of card games and for years, every Saturday, she played penny poker with a group of her friends. Later, she played bingo and bridge. She liked to bike ride, swim and she especially liked to participate in walk-a-thons.

She loved to travel and would have liked to have done more. She enjoyed summer road trips to Canada, California and New York; cruises to Caribbean Islands with James; bus trips to gambling casinos; flights to Las Vegas to gamble; and trips to bridge tournaments. She was a good gardener and after retirement she planned a garden around her yard and filled it with her favorite plants-roses, daylillies and hostas.

Eva Jo loved tackling projects including a summer spent painting the outside of the house with her daughters, stripping the paint from all the woodwork in the house and researching her family history.

Eva Jo was preceded in death by her husband, James Wendell Brown and her son Anthony Dewayne Brown. She is survived by her brother, Alphonso A. Mailes, Jr. her cousin, Dolores Bartee; and her second cousin Charles Robinson; third cousin Veronica Robinson; brother-in-law Charles O. Brown; sisters-in law Norma Brown and Breatha Collins; nieces Deitra (Collins) Shelton and Tonya (Collins) Green; Denise Stevenson; and nephews Ernest Collins; Darryl Collins; Mitchell Patterson; Roy Patterson; David Patterson and Christopher Brown.

Eva Jo will be missed by her daughters Linda E. Brown and Kimberly J. Brown and her sons-in-law John L. Miller and Lee A. Robinson. Her family hopes you remember her and that when you think of Eva Jo, you smile.

Humbly Submitted…………………………..The Family