Larry Brown

Larry King Brown died peacefully in his sleep on Friday, February 28th, at
12:07 pm, in Provo,Utah, due to complications from Alzheimer's Disease. He
was 81 years old.

Larry was born on April 8th, 1938 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Emma Lavon
and Burl Armon Brown. He was the fourth of six children. He was raised in
Utah and California and graduated high school from BY High in Provo, Utah.
He met Alice Drue Berrett, the love of his life, at Ricks college and they were
married in the Idaho Falls Temple on July 3rd, 1959.

Larry received a Masters Degree in Public Health Administration from the
University of Alaska. He spent his entire career working for the Center for
Disease Control (CDC). His career took him and his family to Anchorage,
Alaska; Ft. Smith, Arkansas; Atlanta, Georgia; and Olympia, Washington.
In 1988 he was assigned to Mbabane, Swaziland where he worked with the
Swazi government to develop and implement a program for childhood
disease prevention. At the end of that assignment, with his wife Drue, he was
called to open the Kenya, Nairobi Mission, for the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints. He retired from CDC in 1991 at the age of 52 in order to
fulfill that assignment. Africa became and remained the endearment of his
life. Even as his memory was failing in the midst of his Alzheimer's disease,
he always remembered Africa. He spent hours reading his mission
experiences, looking at pictures, and watching his beloved “Uganda Video.”

In 1997, he served as the director for the Independence, Missouri Visitors
Center. In 2004 he was called into the Seattle Temple Presidency. The temple
became the center of his life and he served joyfully with Drue for over 20
years. His final calling in his mortal life was as the Olympia Stake Patriarch
where he served for many years. His life was a supreme example of giving
everything to the Lord.

At the age of 74, Larry fulfilled his lifelong dream of opening an old
fashioned ice cream store in downtown Olympia called “Grandpa's.” It
brought him immeasurable joy to see families come in together and eat ice
cream. He especially loved seeing his grandchildren behind the counter
scooping ice cream to save money for college and missions. Just like
everything he did in life, even his ice cream store had a spiritual purpose.

He was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather who loved gathering
family together. He built homes with gathering in mind and loved spending
family reunions at “Ospreyland,” a vacation home he built on Anderson
Island. He regularly took his grandchildren on boating adventures in the
Puget Sound.

For health reasons, he and Drue moved to Provo, Utah in the summer of 2019
where he loved the mountains and being closer to his “best cousin Bill.”
He is survived by his loving wife, Drue, and his seven children: Larry King
Brown Jr. (Digger), Kathleen Woolf, Brenda Labit, Julie Backus, Angela
Paynter, Alicia Neeley, and Randall Brown.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, March 7th at 1:00 p.m. with a viewing
prior to the service at 12:00 p.m. The service will be held at The Church of
Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints Stake Center on 600 Overhulse Road,
Olympia, Washington.