Mr.Eddie L Brown, Sr.

Eddie L. Brown, Sr., 96, entered eternal rest peacefully on Thursday, June 19, 2025, after many years of a wonderful life. He was born on January 9, 1929, to Fred Brown and Grace Bennefield Brown in Jacksonville, Florida. He grew up on Hill Street as one of eight children and attended Duval County Public Schools. He temporarily separated from high school to join the U.S. Army, where he was stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii as a Corporal. Following his honorable discharge from the Army, he returned to Jacksonville and completed highschool. The following year, he married Doris Jones, whom he had first met in junior highschool. He had received permission from her parents to write to her while away in the military.

Eddie and Doris attended First Baptist Church of Oakland (predecessor to The Church of Oakland), the home church of Doris--from childhood to adulthood--and her mother’s family, the Cobbs. Eddie joined the family in service and taught Sunday school. Eddie often shared words of using our God-given talents to serve. Guided and trained by his father-in-law, Carl R. Jones, Eddie became a journeyman plasterer, a trade he enjoyed and appreciated even after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Florida Normal Industrial and Memorial College in St. Augustine, Florida, now located in Miami as Florida Memorial University. In the mid-1960s, he commuted to Florida A & M University in Tallahassee to pursue his Master of Education degree. He later received his Education Specialist degree (Ed.S.) from Nova SoutheasternUniversity.

For years as a teacher, he completed plastering jobs during summer breaks. One of those breaks occurred in Newark, NJ when he acquired a major plastering assignment and ended the summer with his family joining him to visit the 1964 New York World’s Fair with its focus on science and technology in the global arena. He made studying these areas fun at home with ongoing science projects in action and world maps lining the garage walls. Eddie introduced this focus and more as a fifth-grade teacher at three elementary schools: Carter G. Woodson, Susie E. Tolbert, and Lake Forest. He emphasized science in building projects among other subjects and assignments in the classroom. Students most loved Mr. Brown as their teacher because of his avid support for their curiosity, his love of and appreciation for science, and his impeccable craftsmanship. He retired from the Duval County Public School system in 1992.

Over the years before retirement, he appreciated various activities in balancing work such as playing board games with daughter, Shandra; gathering the family for an occasional outing of pier fishing; keeping an immaculate yard with prize-winning red rose bushes; writing lyrics for emerging songs; and making his famous strawberry milkshakes. Post- retirement highlights have included spending time with his grandchildren while attentive to their interests and enjoying a morning bowl of grits with a soft-scrambled egg and two strips of crispy bacon or sausage links. He continued building and singing.

He always encouraged you to write down your ideas and plans. “If you can see it and believe it, you can achieve it,” he often stated. He not only stressed these words but also balanced support and independence to allow growth and achievement. The process mightbe a step backward before moving forward, but he patiently observed. Eddie was preceded in death by his wife, Doris, his son, Eddie “Scuffy” Jr., his parents, and five of his siblings. He is survived by his daughters, Dr. Cheryl L. Brown and Mrs. Shandra Brown Rodmon (Howard); brothers, Alton (Alice) and Johnnie; five grandchildren, Horace Johnson, Mackenzie Green, Ellington Green, Zachary Green, and Howard “EJ” Rodmon, Jr.; and a host of nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends. The family is grateful for the kind and helpful care providers Eddie Brown encountered and appreciate their expressions of savoring the opportunity to learn from him—including lengthy conversations about life, songs and words of God’s goodness, and lessons in calligraphy. Let us remember our loved ones with gratitude, inhabit the present with enthusiasm, and look forward to the future with tranquility. Eddie Brown’s celebration of life service will be Friday, June 27, at 12:00 noon at Alphonso West Mortuary Chapel in Jacksonville, Florida.