Claude Stewart Brown, Sr.

Claude Stewart Brown, Sr. Claude was born May 30, 1932, in the Sylacauga Infirmary, Sylacauga, Alabama to Claude C. Brown and Myrtle Brown (Wade). On August 23, 2011, he died at home in Huntsville, Texas at 79 years old. C.S. Brown served in the military 1950-1951 on active duty at Ft. Bliss and Korea until he was severely wounded in Korea in 1951. He was hospitalized for many months before being released to return home. The doctors never expected him to live over five years after his release from the hospital. What the doctors didn’t know about was Claude Brown’s will to live and how he loved life. He was in braces from his neck down for a long time but he gradually pushed and pushed until he began to shed the braces one at a time. It took many years of gritty determination, hospital confinements, and doctoring sores where the shrapnel would work its way to the surface and come out, he battled a pressure sore on his hip from 1951 until the end. He never complained about the pain he suffered. He remained a paraplegic for the rest of his life and wheelchair bound for most of those years. Claude faced life with great humor and a bright outlook; he was a ‘glass half-full’ personality. He had tremendous energy and inadvertently created many situations that turned out to be great stories after-the-fact. Anybody that was good friends with Claude has a story, but they are too numerous to elaborate in this memorial. He was a licensed gunsmith and loved guns and hunting with a passion. He was tough as boot leather and tenacious as a turtle about his point of view and life, so it goes without saying that he was extremely opinionated. There were very few things he would not attempt to do, especially if he could get you to do it. Claude Brown was excellent using his hands to make things and also a master at spinning tales, and he passed both of these skills along to his two sons and daughter. Claude was preceded in death by the love of his life, Jerri Brown, they were married August 1, 1952 and she passed away October 7, 2008. He was also preceded in death by granddaughter, Brandi Brown and his parents. He is survived by three children, Gerrie Amanda Brown, Claude Stewart Brown, Jr. and wife Tamara and Joseph Gregory Brown and wife Jamie; grandchildren, David Baum, Tiffany McKee, Alicia Scott, Chelsie Burnett, Faye Brown and Holly Brown; six great-grandchildren; brother, Jesse Chandler Brown, of Union Mississippi; sisters Willie Jo Key, of Tallapoosa, Georgia and Myrtle Saxon, of German Town, Tennessee; two brothers-in-law, James E. Collum, of Huntsville and G. Derwood Collum of Huntsville; and sister-in-law Janice J. Murphree of Marble Valley, Alabama. The funeral service will be held Saturday, August 27, 2011, 10:00 a.m. at Sam Houston Memorial Funeral Home Chapel in Huntsville, Texas, with burial to follow at Brooke Cemetery in Huntsville. Mr. Brown will lie in state Friday, August 26, 2011, at Sam Houston Memorial Funeral Home, with visitation from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Those wishing to leave memorial condolences for the family may do so at www.shmfh.com

Claude Stewart Brown, Sr.

May 30, 1932 - August 27, 2011