Obituary

Funeral services for Hazel Ruth Brown, 82, will be at 11 a.m. Thursday in United Baptist Church with the Rev. Charles Hankson, pastor of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Lorenzo, officiating. Burial will be in Plainview Memorial Park by Bartley Funeral Home. Mrs. Brown died Monday, July 25, 2005, in Covenant Hospital Plainview. She was born May 24, 1923, to Finnie and Ethel Henley Williams in Gholston and grew up in Abbott and later moved to Waco. After her marriage to the Rev. Clarence B. Brown on Aug. 18, 1948, in Waco, she and her family relocated to Plainview. Mrs. Brown was an active member at St. Paul Baptist Church and later United Baptist Church where she served as a Sunday school teacher, choir member, a deaconess and headed the Missionary Society. In January 1977, the Rev. Brown and Mrs. Brown became pastor and first lady of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Lorenzo. Mrs. Brown held offices in the Order of the Eastern Star, was a charter member of the Plainview Adult Women's Study Club when it formed in 1962, and various other community activities and organizations. During her years of major career employment, she worked in women's retail sales. Survivors include five sons and four daughters-in-law, Fred and Emma Herring, Joe and Millie Whitaker of Plainview, Jimmy and Valerie Brown of Overland Park, Kan., Edward and Beverly Brown of Wichita Falls and William Brown of Dale City, Okla.; three daughters and two sons-in-law, Alma Peel of Plainview, Betty and Roosevelt Jackson of Amarillo and Ethel and Keith Singleton of San Antonio; five sisters, Eva Lee Turner, Margaret Silas, Hallie B. Williams, Bertha Rogers and Nettie Williams; 29 grandchildren and a host of great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Her husband died Feb. 16, 1985, and a son, Curtis Herring, also is deceased. Viewing will be from 9 a.m.-8 p.m. today at Bartley Funeral Home. Pre-viewing will be from 9:30-10:30 a.m. Thursday at United Baptist Church