Genesha "Frances" Brawer

GENESHA “FRANCES” BRAWER died at home in Riverside, California on March 9, 2014 at the age of 94 from complications of vascular dementia and pneumonia. She was predeceased by her husband Marvin in 1956 and by her three older brothers, Harvey, Max, and Louis Faber. Frances moved to Riverside in October 1994 to be near her grandchildren, Rebekah and David Louis; her daughter, Deborah; and her son-in-law, David Lee Silva.

The Memorial Service will be at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 30, 2014 in the chapel at The Grove Community Church in Riverside. Reception will follow. Interment was at Olivewood Cemetery.

Genesha Ethel Faber was born in Wilmington, Delaware on March 21, 1919, the fourth child and only daughter of Fannie Leah Price Faber and Jacob Faber. Jacob was determined to have children until he had a girl. The eldest of Jacob’s three sons, Harvey, who was away at college in Pennsylvania in 1919, thought it was a joke when he received a telegram that he had a little sister. The youngest son, Louis, two months shy of 11 years old when Genesha arrived, served as chief babysitter. Later in life, when she and Louis were widowed, they lived together for 21 years.

An excellent student and athlete, Genesha received the “Best Athlete” trophy in 1933 at summer camp. At the University of Delaware, Class of 1940, she majored in French and had a reputation as “one whose nose was continually stuck in a book.” Instead of teaching high school French, her original career plan, she taught immigrants how to become U.S. citizens in the 1940s and soon thereafter began a long career as a legal secretary in the federal courts in Wilmington, Delaware and Baltimore, Maryland.

On her 32nd birthday, Genesha married Marvin Brawer, a successful businessman 16 years her senior. He co-owned Davis Studios (photography) in Wilmington with his brother Irving. At age 36, Genesha became a widow and single mother when Marvin’s second heart attack was misdiagnosed as an ulcer and proved fatal. Genesha devoted herself to her infant daughter and work. She never remarried.

A closet Billy Graham fan, Genesha secretly listened to his radio broadcasts and read the Bible on the bus to and from work. After Dec. 5, 1972, Genesha used to say, “Jesus is a good friend of mine,” and after Deborah became a believer in 1982, they attended Bible studies and church together.

Genesha retired from the court in March 1981 and decided that when she moved to California to be near her daughter, she would tell everyone her first name was Frances, a name that she liked, which was easier to pronounce and spell than her given first name, which had always been a burden to her.

In addition to her immediate family in Riverside, Genesha is survived by three nieces in Wilmington, Delaware, Maxine Fanning, Jaqueline Andreoli, and Leah Faber; a niece in Miami, Harriet Brookman; and a nephew in Erie, Pennsylvania, Mark Marbey.

Arrangements under the direction of Acheson & Graham Garden of Prayer Mortuary, Riverside, CA.