Joy Alice Brown

March 19, 1917 ~ April 26, 2008

Our loving and deeply loved mother, Dr. Joy Alice Brown, passed away peacefully of natural causes on April 26, 2008 in Farmington, NM. She recently celebrated her 91st birthday.

She was born in Redmesa, CO on March 19, 1917, to Ezra E. Walker and Alice M. Walker. She attended Fort Lewis College, and began her teaching career when she was 19 at the one-room schoolhouse at Rockwood. She taught at Mayday, Bayfield, Aztec, in Hawaii and Alaska, Red Mesa, Kirtland, and Blanco.

She and her husband had two children, Kimleigh and Loraleigh, and were later divorced. As a single mother, she obtained a Bachelor’s degree, a Master’s in 1967 and a Doctorate in 1970.

She became a distinguished professor of special education at New Mexico State University.

After her retirement from education, at the age of 69 she built and operated a convenience store, Mesa Merc, in Red Mesa, working 12 hours a day until she was 82, at which time she moved to her home near her daughter in Mancos.

She is survived by her children, seven grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild on the way.

Her care for and service to others were exceptional, and the help she freely gave others can never be fully known and appreciated. She is the kind of human being that all of us should aspire to be, and few of us ever will become.

Her funeral was May 2, 2008 in Red Mesa with burial in the Red Mesa Cemetery.

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