Edna Mae Brown left proud legacy

Readers may not have known her real name.

But one of the women who wrote about food for The Spokesman-Review under the pen name Dorothy Dean will be remembered for her civic pride, eagerness to help and hundreds of red geraniums.

Edna Mae Brown, who died Saturday at age 93, stopped writing her newspaper column in 1942. But she remained active in numerous civic organizations.

“She didn’t give some money and forget the cause, she would do everything for a cause for which she believed,” said her friend of 50 years, former Spokesman-Review reporter and columnist Dorothy Powers. “She just was remarkable in so many ways – in what she could do personally, and what she could convince and support others to do.”

Some of those things were simple, like flocked Christmas trees every year for the Opera House. And others more grand, like her 75-year involvement in the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

“During her lifespan she had probably more influence on the lives of women in Spokane than anybody else,” said Powers, a member of the same sorority.

As a high-ranking national officer in the sorority, Brown “had an effect in forming the ethics and philosophy of hundreds of college girls in the Inland Northwest,” Powers said.

Brown’s daughter-in-law, Sue Brown, remembers a box purse of seemingly infinite volume and gingerbread men for children at Christmas.

At Edna Mae Brown’s cabin on Lake Coeur d’Alene, her love of gardening was evident in the nearly 500 bright red geraniums dotting the landscape.

One of Edna Mae Brown’s proudest moments was seeing the restoration and reopening of the Davenport Hotel, her daughter-in-law said. As a board member for the Friends of the Davenport group, she watched with disappointment as attempts to restore the hotel failed year after year, sitting through difficult meetings in her trademark skirt, blouse and brooch pin.

“There were, of course, times when we were all so discouraged,” Powers said. “At the end of some pretty contentious meetings, she’d say a sentence or two and get everybody laughing.”

After the hotel opened in 2002, Brown was present for her granddaughter’s wedding reception in the hotel.

“When that reopened, she was just thrilled,” Sue Brown said.

A memorial service will be held at First Presbyterian Church, Thursday at 11 a.m.

While Edna Mae Brown’s legendary cooking skills, charitable involvement and kindness will be missed, her friends and family said she has left a proud legacy.

“Spokane will really be much the less having lost her,” Powers said. “Had we not had her, this city would not be what it is today.”