Nancy Leming Brown
Friday, August 17, 2007
Nancy Leming Brown, 76, an activist in Fairfax County civic affairs for almost 50 years, died Aug. 6 at her home in Lincolnia Park in Fairfax County. She had leiomyosarcoma, a muscle cancer.
A past chairman of the Fairfax County Park Authority, Mrs. Brown served on the authority board for about 20 years. She was chairman of the Occoquan Study Task Force in 1970. Ten years later, she was appointed to another committee that recommended restricting development of the 40,000-acre watershed of the rapidly developing region. That controversial advice led to a court decision that protected the county's water quality.
She was a Democratic election official from the 1960s through the 1990s and was a past member of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee. She worked on a number of local campaigns.
She was born in Washington,grew up in North Chevy Chase and graduated from  Woodrow Wilson High School in 1948. She graduated from the University of Vermont in 1952. Four years later, she and her husband moved to Northern Virginia, where she immediately became active in volunteer work.
She was a board member of the League of Women Voters, for which she coordinated a voter registration drive and served as the league's spokeswoman before county and regional governments. The league gave her a Citizen of the Year award. The Fairfax County Commission for Women gave her an honorable mention award.
She co-founded and was a past president of Spring-Mar Cooperative School and was a past president of the Bren Mar Park Elementary School PTA. She was a 49-year member of Grace Presbyterian Church, where she sang in the choir.
Mrs. Brown enjoyed the outdoors, practiced organic gardening and played competitive tennis. She was captain of her team in the Greater Washington Tennis Association and won 65-and-over tournaments at the local and regional level of the U.S. Tennis Association.
Survivors include her husband, Robert Brown of Lincolnia Park; two daughters, Susan Brown Henri of Lake Ridge and Sarah Brown of Springfield; and a granddaughter.
-- Patricia Sullivan