Viola Mae Brown

Viola Mae Brown

Age 101

St. Louis Park

Viola Mae Brown was born November 22nd, 1924 to Charles & Lillian (Shipp) Stiehl in Hay Springs, Nebraska. She passed away on November 29th, 2025 at the age of 101.

Viola lived in Hay Springs with her parents and sister Donna. She attended Hay Springs schools and graduated from high school in 1943. She then attended and graduated from the National School of Business in Rapid City, South Dakota. She worked as a secretary at the Tri-State Milling Company in Rapid City for a year and then left for Denver, Colorado to attend Colorado Women's College for one year, where her mother insisted she major in homemaking. After that, she worked as a secretary in downtown Denver at a large department store. She then went to Boulder, Colorado and worked as a secretary in the Chemistry Department at the University of Colorado. It was there she met Harvey Brown and they were married August 27th, 1949 in Boulder. After Harvey graduated with a PhD degree in chemistry, they moved to St. Paul, Minnesota where Harvey worked as a research chemist at 3M Company, and retired after 30 years of service.

Three children were born of this union; Claudia Lee, Dana Allen, and Loren Wayne. Viola was active in many of her children's activities including Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts. She was also active in the Republican Party during the 1960s, Hazel Park Congregational Church, and the Anoka Gem & Mineral Club. She and her husband operated a hobby gem and jewelry business for over 20 years where they participated in gem and mineral shows. Viola was also an avid bridge player and usually belonged to four or five bridge clubs.

Her family and friends were blessed to have the opportunity to celebrate her 100th birthday on November 22nd, 2024. She was preceded in death by her husband, parents and sister. She is survived by her daughter, Claudia (David) Workman, son Dana (Annie), son Loren (Nancy), eight grandchildren, one great grandchild, and many other family and friends

A celebration of life will be held at Washburn-McReavy on December 19th, 2025, with visitation beginning at 10am, celebration of life service at 11am, with a luncheon to follow. Burial will be at Fort Snelling at 2pm.