LaVerna Colson Brown
2006
LaVerna Colson Brown, 77, a former records clerk at the Justice Department who was also a church organist, died Sept. 8 of chronic lymphocytic leukemia at her home in Santa Rosa, Calif.
Mrs. Brown, who did not use her first name of Marjorie, was born in Washington and graduated from Eastern High School. Through a school work-study program, she began working with the Acacia Mutual Life Insurance Co. at age 14. She later spent 10 years with the records division of the Justice Department.
Mrs. Brown's first love was music, and she studied piano and organ for more than 10 years. She was the organist and choir director at the old Ingram Memorial Congregation Church on Capitol Hill from the late 1940s until 1959.
	From 1959 to 1966, she was an occasional organist at Cleveland Park Congregational Church, where her husband was pastor. She also accompanied singers and musicians in recitals.
In 1966, Mrs. Brown moved to San Francisco, where she worked for H R Block and was a volunteer music teacher in elementary schools. After moving to Carmel, Calif., in 1980, she volunteered with the homeless ministry of the Community Church of the Monterey Peninsula.
She settled in Santa Rosa in 1989. In addition to music, her interests included art and travel.
Her husband of 38 years, the Rev. James Clark Brown, died in 1998.
Survivors include two children, David Brown of Windsor, Calif., and Edie Brown of Santa Rosa; a sister, Carol Kimbell of Hyattsville; and five grandchildren.