Marie-Jeanne Fuhrmann Brown, age 90, passed away on April 18, 2023 in Placitas, New Mexico.
Marie will be remembered for her deep love for her family, her quiet thoughtfulness, the stability and comfort she found in tradition, and her strong sense of faith, which served as a steady source of courage throughout her life.
Marie was born on February 20, 1933 to Eugene Fuhrmann and Julia Cima Fuhrmann in Metz, France. With her sister Françoise and brother Michel, she spent her childhood in the idyllic hills of Metz and Goetzenbruck, her family village in the Alsace-Lorraine region. When she was just seven years old, World War II began and Metz was quickly invaded by the Germans, and Marie and her family were forced to live under Nazi occupation for five long and difficult years before the Liberation in 1945.
Marie attended college at the University of Strasbourg and after graduating, worked as a schoolteacher in Metz for several years. While chaperoning her younger sister Françoise at a dance for American GIs at the Chambley-Bussières Air Force base outside of Metz, she met Tom Brown, an American airman who would soon become her loving husband of 61 years.
Tom and Marie stayed in touch via mail for two years after the dance, and in 1959, Marie gathered her courage and bought a one-way ticket to Goldsboro, North Carolina, where Tom was stationed at the time. After only three weeks together in North Carolina, Marie decided she could spend the rest of her life with Tom and they married on January 16, 1960. They were perfect opposites – Tom a warm and inviting foil to Marie’s gentle, polite, and serious demeanor.
Marie continued teaching school in North Carolina, and in 1961, she and Tom welcomed their first son, Mark, soon followed by their daughter Julie and a second son John, all while moving among several Air Force bases in the American South.
In 1967, the family moved to Hof, Germany, for three years before returning stateside to Texas.
Marie earned her American bachelor’s degree in language from the University of Texas at Austin in 1974. One year later, they moved to Georgetown, Texas, where Tom and Marie eventually settled into retirement – happily spending time with their grandchildren, playing card games with friends, cooking incredible meals, and traveling around the world together.
Marie was a talented artist in every way – as an award-winning quilter, a self-taught painter in acrylics and oils specializing in landscapes and florals, and an avid knitter, crocheter, and seamstress. She volunteered at Handcrafts Unlimited, a non-profit shop in Georgetown run by senior artisans for 30 years, spending the last five as manager and executive director. Marie was also a deeply dedicated Catholic, and she and Tom were active members of St. Helen’s Catholic Church and Holy Trinity Catholic Church of Corn Hill.
Despite the many challenges Marie faced during her life, she will be remembered for being incredibly brave and deeply caring of her family through it all. A few months after her 90th birthday, Marie passed away peacefully in Placitas, New Mexico, joining her adoring husband Tom in their shared heavenly reward. Marie is survived by her son Mark and wife Jeanine, daughter Julie and husband Eric Pastor, and son John and wife Brenda, as well as her four grandchildren, Katie, Sam and Noah Pastor, and Mika Brown.
Memorial Mass will be celebrated in honor of Marie’s life on Friday, September 1 at
10 a.m. at Holy Trinity Catholic Church of Corn Hill in Jarrell, Texas.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to St. Louise House, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the success of women and their children moving from homelessness to healthy independent lives
www.saintlouisehouse.org.