On Thursday, June 11, 2020, Josephine Lou Brown, wife, mother, music teacher and friend, passed away at the age of 98. She was born August 18, 1921, in Kimball, South Dakota. Her parents, Henry Benjamin LuBean and Lillian LuBean named her Manilla LuBean. After her mother’s death, at the age of one, she was adopted by Sanford Clyde Washburn and Lillian Lalona (Crouch) Washburn who renamed her Josephine Lou Washburn. 

Josephine (Jo) was raised on a farm 10 miles south of Artesian, South Dakota in the Farwell community. She started her education in a one-room schoolhouse near her home. Following her graduation in 1939 from Artesian High School, she received an Associate’s degree in Music and Elementary Education from Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, S.D., in 1941. Jo then obtained a teaching position at an elementary school in Huron, S.D. Later, in 1958-59, Jo went back to Dakota Wesleyan University and received her Bachelor of Music and Education degree.

Because Jo showed an aptitude for music at an early age, she took piano lessons and became experienced enough to play for high school, college and church activities. She also loved to sing and was asked to sing and play the piano for many weddings and funerals. Later she taught herself how to play the organ so she could be an organist at Artesian Methodist Church.

Jo’s teaching career started in Huron, S.D., and she later taught in Artesian and the surrounding communities of Fedora, Forestburg, Carthage and Brookings.

When Jo was 16 years old, she met Edwin (Eddie) Clyde Brown, a young farmer from nearby Fedora, S.D. They married in Miami, Oklahoma on October 30, 1944, right before Eddie went to the European front in WWII. They were married for 68 years at the time of Eddie’s passing on February 5, 2013.

On November 15, 1958, Eddie and Joe welcomed their daughter, Terri Sue Brown, into their family. Terri Sue was born in Inchon, South Korea and was a war orphan.  

Eddie and Jo owned a farm in Artesian, S.D., until they retired in 1977 and moved to Sherman, Texas. They lived in Sherman for five years and then moved to Mesa, Ariz., where several of their S.D. friends and family spent the winters. Jo was in a band and performed constantly for dances at several of the Mesa area retirement centers. At age 96, she was still playing the piano at the nursing home where she spent her last couple of years.

Jo and Eddie are survived by their daughter, Terri Sue Brown Kirkpatrick and son-in-law, Bruce Kirkpatrick, of Montgomery, Texas, and two grandchildren, Traci Jo Kirkpatrick (Matthew) Older and Kyle Bruce (Krista) Kirkpatrick and seven great-grandchildren, Marc, Ayden and Elise Older, Jack, Dylan, Hudson and Karson Kirkpatrick and several nieces and nephews.

Jo’s brothers, Carl Sanford Washburn, Earnest LuBean, Charles Gunn, Raymond Loomer and sister, Ida Mae Bailey, all preceded her in death.