Obituary of John Varley Bown

John Varley Bown of Bonney Lake, WA. passed away May 21, 2011 of heart failure at the age of 91 years. John was born March 15, 1920 to James and Clara Wilding Bown at home in East Cora Township, Sully County, South Dakota. There he attended East Cora country school and grew to manhood on the Bown ranch with his 7 brothers. Together they developed their grandparent’s homestead into the Bown Brothers Hereford Ranch. On Sept. 2, 1941 in Huron, SD he was united in marriage to Bernadette McGilvery of Gettysburg, SD and they had one daughter, Judy. From 1942-1945 he served in the US Army AirForce as a Sgt. During WW II, guarding German POW’s in a forest in France. On June 3, 1946 in Gettysburg, SD he was married to Rosemary Smith of St. Louis, Missouri. To this union were born 5 children. In the 1950s John left the ranch and moved the family to Agar, SD where he worked for the Sully Co. Dept. of Transportation, maintaining roads east of Agar. They moved to Buckley, Washington in 1966 and John worked as a jet engine mechanic at Rohr, a sub-contractor for Boeing. They came back to South Dakota in 1971 where he built and ran the Deadwood Stagecoach for tourists with his son, Gary. Also, at that time he worked at the Ft. Meade Veteran’s Hospital for the next 15 years. When he retired, John and Rosemary moved back out to Washington and spent his last 20 years on a small farm in Yakima, growing huge gardens, raising his prize chickens and nurturing his many fruit trees and grape vines, much to his great enjoyment. His last year of life he lived in Bonney Lake, WA to be near his children because of failing health. John loved baseball, pitching on local teams in Sully County, SD in his youth. He was a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan. He loved working on cars and engines, Corvairs being his favorite. He was an accomplished carpenter, plumber and electrician. Whatever the job called for, John could put a hand to it. He wrote a children’s book, “The Chokelberry Bears”, for his grandchildren. The ranch in Sully County always remained his first love. He will be lovingly remembered and greatly missed for his unfailing good humor and jokes and the Chokelberry Bear stories he told to his children, grandchildren and nieces and nephews. His faith in God and Jesus’s promise of the resurrection was ever-present in his life. He is survived by his wife Rosemary of 65 years and his 5 children: Judy (Carl) Franklin of Auburn, CA, Eileen (Ron) Jost of Hoven, SD, Joey Bown of Gig Harbor, WA, Elaine (Ray) Armenta and Alan (Phyllis) Bown of Bonney Lake, WA; 22 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, his oldest son, Gary, in 2008, and 5 brothers: Robert, Fred, Kenneth, Verne, and James. Funeral services will be held Saturday, May 28th, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovahs Witnesses Buckley, WA. Burial will be in the Bown Family plot in Lebanon, SD.