Lanissa Adelia Brown

Lanissa Adelia (David) Brown was born January 8, 1915 on the David family farm in Decatur County near Oberlin, Kansas.  She departed this world on February 8, 2008 in Prescott, Arizona at the age of 93. Lanissa grew up on the family farm and graduated from Decatur County High School.  She attended Fort Hays State College and received a lifetime teaching degree.  Upon her graduation in the early 1930?s, she started teaching grade school at the age of 18, and taught in several one-room schoolhouses around northwest Kansas.  While teaching in Brewster Kansas, Violette Brown, a colleague, introduced Lanissa to her brother, Ralph, at a box social.  Lanissa married Ralph Elmer Brown on May 23, 1943, under a huge cottonwood tree on the David family farm.  To this union, Ralph and Lanissa were blessed with two children, Glenna Dee, born September 4, 1946 and Warren David, born May 7, 1949. Ralph and Lanissa lived on the Brown family farmstead northeast of Brewster, Kansas.  They were wheat farmers and registered Angus cattle ranchers.  Many of the breeding cows were named after Lanissa. Ralph and Lanissa bought a house in Colby, Kansas and resided there part-time while their children attended school.  Lanissa continued to do substitute teaching in the Colby Public Schools system.  The peace and quiet of the farm, the love of the land, and a beautiful yard were the reasons for living in the country.   Along with being a caring wife and mother, Lanissa became very involved with research and writings on the Civil War.  Her grandfather and several relatives had fought against each other during war.  She started traveling the Civil War states and collected numerous artifacts to develop her extensive Civil War presentation.  With her teaching experience, she gave many of these presentations throughout northwest Kansas.  Her children and grandchildren would always come to her for resources when writing reports in history class.  While living in Kansas, Lanissa was active in the Semper Fedelis Study Club, associated with the 6th District of the Kansas Federated Woman?s Club.  In the 1960?s, Lanissa was a Worthy Matron of the Kansas Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star.  She transferred her membership to the Apache Lodge Eastern Star after moving to Mesa in 1980.  Lanissa also enjoyed traveling the world.  Her journeys took her to the Far East, Africa, Egypt, Portugal, England, Holland, and Hawaii, just to name a few.  These adventures were taken with her sister Frances Anderson, her sister-in law Violette Brown, and other friends as companions.  In the 1970?s, Lanissa started taking art classes in oil painting at Colby Community College, following the artistic footsteps of her mother Ida Bogart David.  In the 1980?s she started pursuing other medium, such as pastels, watercolors, and scratchboard.  Many of her paintings received numerous awards at annual Leisure World Art Shows.  Ralph and Lanissa continued to farm until June 1980, when due to Ralph?s health, they moved to the retirement community of Leisure World in Mesa, Arizona.  While there, Lanissa participated in numerous activities such as clogging, swimming, lawn bowling, and shuffleboard.  She was a member of the Kansas Club in Leisure World and was President of the Leisure World Art Association.  In March of 2000, she moved to Granite Gate Resort in Prescott to be closer to her son, Warren.  Shortly thereafter, she moved to Las Fuentes Care Center where she resided until her death.  While at Las Fuentes, Lanissa was a very active resident who enjoyed many of the activities, including outings to the Diamondback games and horse races, bingo, arts and crafts, and holiday activities like decorating cookies at Easter, and trick or treating at Halloween.   She also was a member of the Red Hat Society of Prescott.  The staff at Las Fuentes became a second family to her.  Throughout her life, Lanissa was an avid sports fan.  Her favorite sport was basketball and her favorite NBA team was the Phoenix Suns.  She never missed watching a game.   Along with basketball, Lanissa never missed keeping her own scorebook for the World Series each year.  Wimbledon was another of her favorites to watch.  Lanissa grew up with a strong religious background.  As a child, Lanissa and her sister were members of the Olive Chapel Daily Bible Study Group.  Later, she had membership with the Colby United Methodist Church while living in Kansas.  After moving to Mesa, she transferred her membership to the Velda Rose United Methodist Church.  The Prescott United Methodist Church outreach programs have been very supportive of Lanissa and her family during her residency at Las Fuentes Care Center. Lanissa is survived by her daughter, Glenna Dee Phelps, and her son and daughter-in-law, Warren and Lou Brown.  She is also survived by seven grandchildren:  Renee Tate, Regina Elliott, Rachael (Tom) Buckley, Raquel (Frank) Lamas, Charlotte (Buff) Van Landingham, Randall (Michelle) Phelps, and Annette Brown.  Lanissa has been blessed with 15 great-grandchildren with one being a namesake, and 7+ great-great grandchildren and another namesake also. Larissa is preceded in death by her loving husband, Ralph.  She will be laid to rest with the love of her life, her sweetheart, on Valentine?s Day, February 14, 2008, at  Mountain View Memorial Gardens in Mesa Arizona.  May they continue to watch over us from the clouds in Heaven.    Grandmother, Mother, Sister, and Friend For guidance and comfort, on her we could depend. A faithful believer, so strong and so dear. The love that she shared made others draw near. Her life was a blessing; each memory we?ll cherish. For all that she was, the love will not perish. A gift for the future, her legacy lives on In the people she touched, and each precious bond. She shaped us and cared for us, made us each who we are. And I know in my heart she will never be far.