Obituary of Alyce Jayne Brown

Alyce was born and reared in Greeley, CO, the daughter of Gene, part owner of Rucker’s Furniture, and Clara, a long time District 6 school nurse, Wood. She attended Ernest Horn Elementary and College High School, later transferring to Heath Junior High School. Alyce graduated from Greeley High School in 1964 and began a journey that took her to CSCE (now UNC) to study nursing, then to a business school. She spent many years as a secretary at Monfort packing plant, now ConAgra, and finally settled in to her lifetime job working for Mutual of Omaha in Kansas and Colorado, retiring in 2005 on physical disability after 35 years on the job.

In 2002 she re-met a man (Wayne Brown) with whom she fell I love at the tender age of seven, in about 1953, when the two of them were in Sunday school together and she was being bullied. Somehow, Wayne put a stop to it, and she remembered that situation for the rest of her life. As she put it, “I chased him for fifty years, even though he didn’t know it…” She finally caught him in 2002 and in 2004 they were married. And the rest, as they say, is history. They were never far apart from that time until her death. Their love was boundless, their commitment to each other complete and unconditional.

Alyce enjoyed playing board games, bridge, and poker – any competitive game she could rope people into playing. Until her mobility got in her way, she was an avid fisherman and was truly at home in the outdoors and camping. She was an avid fan of reality TV shows, murder mysteries in books (she was an avid reader) or TV, and the food channel. In her late teens, Alyce was a very skilled golfer, and even played in some pro-amateur tournaments. When playing golf with her first husband, she beat him by 12 strokes. He responded by breaking all of her clubs. She never played again.

She is the mother of three, Brent (Suzanne), Travis (Connie), and Barb. Alyce fell in love with Wayne’s children, Adria (Rich), Devon (Heather), and Jessica (Mike), and treated them (and was treated by them) as her natural family. She has six grandchildren (twelve counting Wayne’s six) and six great-grandchildren (five of hers and one of Wayne’s). Her family was the most important quality of her life, and her love for them all was the supreme aspect of her wonderful and well-lived life. Her loving heart was the highlight of her existence, and her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were the center of everything.

She is preceded in death by her parents and brother John. Celebration of life will be held on February 25^th at 2:00 P.M., at the Boomer House, 1024 8^th Street, Greeley, CO 80631. As Alyce became more and more deaf over the years and had a much-loved hearing dog (Taylor) for many years, memorial gifts may be made to Hearing Dogs International in care of Viegut Funeral Home, 1616 North Lincoln Avenue, Loveland, CO 80538.