Mathilda B Brown

Mathilda Barisas Brown passed peacefully October 17, 2012. Mathilda was born November 17, 1912, the daughter of John and Mary Barisas, first generation immigrants from Lithuania who settled in Omaha, Nebraska. Raised in a Lithuanian neighborhood in Omaha, “Tillie” went to St. Anthony’s Lithuanian grade school and graduated high school from South Omaha High School having walked 6 miles to and from school each day. She earned her college degree in elementary education from Peru State Teachers’ College in Nebraska. She began her teaching career in a country school in Creighton and then continued with an adventurous move to Hoquiam, Washington.

Tillie had dated Robert Langdon Brown from Independence, MO, in Nebraska when he was working with the Army Corps of Engineers, and eventually she moved to Danvers, Massachusetts, where they were married and he attended engineering school at MIT. They settled in Kansas City, MO in 1944 when Bob accepted a job with Black and Veatch. In 1950 they made their home at 104th and Wornall Road.

She resumed teaching in the Kansas City school district until the birth of her first child in 1946. In 1952, after the birth of her fourth and last child, she returned to teaching third grade at Corinth School. During that time, she became actively involved in the professional teaching organization Alpha Delta Kappa. From 1964-1966, Til served as Alpha Gamma ADK chapter president and as Kansas State’s ADK President from 1972-1974. She taught at Corinth until her retirement in 1980. But she wasn’t ready to retire.

In the late 1960s, she decided to get her real estate license. In her new career area, Til shifted to using her nickname “Brownie” Brown professionally. Even the part-time work in that field was not enough. She wanted to teach overseas. One place she seriously considered was Saudi Arabia, but they would not take her because she was a “single woman”(Bob had passed back in 1974.) She did travel to Cali, Colombia, in the fall of 1980 to teach fourth grade for one year.

Til started volunteering as a Gray Lady at St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1944, proudly dressed with the starched white collar, cuffs, and cap. Her volunteerism at St. Joseph’s continued until she was in her early 90s; she was known all over the hospital from escorting patients to their rooms after admitting them to doing inventory in the basement. She remembered, “One day at the old hospital I looked up to see former President Harry Truman standing there. He had come to visit a friend who was hospitalized” (from A Mission of Healing by Andrew Warren). Patients, nurses, doctors and administrators knew her well. Many former patients would catch her in the halls of St. Joe’s while they were visiting friends or relatives and thank her for her kindness while they were ailing. She was honored as the hospital’s “Volunteer of the Year” for 1995-1996 and is the longest standing volunteer of the St. Joseph’s Auxiliary.

Til and Bob raised four children at the Wornall home. She supported each in their individual interests—maybe tennis or piano lessons for young Robert (Charlie), encouraging softball, volleyball, and swimming for Marita, feeding pet squirrels, red-tailed hawks or his pet raccoon Snoopy with John, and tumbling lessons or buying books upon books for Barbara.

Physical activity was always important for Til; when she was younger, she golfed and bowled in leagues with Bob. She usually drew her family into it. Many holiday dinners were followed by her rousing them from the couch to run around the outside of the house a couple of times. The children were clad in sweats and tennis shoes, but Tillie would jog in her tweed suit with nylons and high heels on. She loved to walk for her regular exercise and kept that up until early in her 90s.

Her brother Barnard Barisas and sisters Frances Barisas and Genevieve Baranouskas all predeceased her. Til leaves behind two sons, Robert “Charlie”(Marian Moor) and John ( Candy); and two daughters, Marita Aufner (Frank), and Barbara Faunce (Ron). Thirteen grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren have added many joyous moments to her life.

Brownie’s family is grateful for all the kindnesses showered on her over the years by the Clare Bridge staff, the St. Joseph’s Hospital extended family, and countless others. In lieu of flowers to honor Brownie, please send donations to the St. Joseph’s Hospital Auxiliary. Visitation will be held Monday from 10:00-11:00 AM followed by the Mass of Christian Burial at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, 11822 Holmes Road, Kansas City, MO. Inurnment will be at Mt. Washington Forever Cemetery.