Emma Eller Brown

Emma Lorene Eller Brown passed from this life into the arms of Jesus at 7PM on 17 Oct 2025. She was born to William Everett Eller and Byrdie Catherine Louisa Stewart Eller on 3 Jan 1932 in Sparta, Tennessee north of the Calf Killer River on the Monterey Hwy. She was married on 30 Sep 1955 to Robert B. Brown, Jr. in Nashville, Tennessee who passed from this world on 14 Oct 2001. Her older brother Comer Ray Eller died 12 Dec 1991. She is survived by Robert B. Brown, III married to Tarina Lynn Brown and Jeffery Alan Brown her sons with William Leigh Brown having passed on 12 Jul 2005. She has three grandchildren—Shanna Lauren Joseph married to Michael Robert Joseph, Robert B. Brown, IV married to Amanda Wisely, and Aislinn Alyse Tooley married to Zachary Jacob Tooley, and five great-grandchildren Matthew Blaine Joseph, Madison Lauren Joseph, Zachary Jacob Tooley, Jr., and Ezekiel James Tooley, and Aiden Charles Brown and numerous nieces and nephews.

Ninety-three years is a long time in modern times for a person to live and she holds the record for anyone on both sides of this branch of the Brown-Eller families. Momma’s story begins as a country girl growing up on a farm with a country general store that her mother ran in White County. She was taught by her parents to be religious, intelligent, and a love for music. Momma and Ma, as her mother was called by the grandchildren, always told the story that it was a warm winter in January 1932 when she was born because her mother told her that a neighbor brought a bouquet of roses from their garden to her home. She was a member at Cherry Creek Church of Christ until her father gave the land and helped build the building for Plainview Church of Christ on the corner of their farm and they became members there. She attended White County High School where she graduated salutatorian in 1950.

She moved from White County when she attended Lipscomb College from 1950 to 1954 where she majored in music and education. She was the May Queen her senior year at Lipscomb. She talked about the Great Blizzard of 1951 from 29 Jan - 1 Feb 1951 in Nashville while at Lipscomb which basically paralyzed Nashville with 3 inches of ice and 8 inches of snow and got down to -13. She said that she got out in the snow with her friends and had a good time not knowing if there was going to be any electricity in the dorm room later. She would spend weekends with her brother, Comer Ray, at his house with his wife Hazel and their two boys, Ray and Steve, on the weekends in East Nashville to get away from the dorm for a while. While there on the weekends, she would play her classical music albums which were not too conducive to two young boys. She met Bob Brown who had attended Lipscomb after having served in World War II and the Korean War but later was attending Middle Tennessee State University and married 30 Sep 1955. She began a 34 year teaching career in education teaching in Harlan, Kentucky, then Stratton Elementary in Madison, the longest part of her career at Rosebank Elementary in East Nashville, and finally at Goodlettsville Elementary. She later got a master’s degree in child psychology and education from MTSU in the late 60s. She was a first and fifth grade teacher and the music teacher at Rosebank and a songwriter for all of the members that retired from Rosebank. She would compose a song for their retirement listing their accomplishments and what they hoped retirement would be like. She even wrote one for two of the directors of Metro-Nashville Public Schools. She was a member of the Sweet Adelines Acapella International and sang with them for about five years until they started traveling too much.

In the early part of their marriage, Daddy worked for Western Electric and then Momma and Daddy moved around because Daddy worked for RCA hiring the crews to install the missile and radar bases during the Cold War in the mid and western states. Bob was born in 1957. We left to follow Daddy’s job in 1958 out west. Daddy planted us in Cheyenne, Wyoming in a trailer where Leigh was born in 1960. Daddy was gone a lot for the four years we were there as was the nature of the job. Robert, as she always called Bob, would sleep in the bed with his Momma when Daddy was gone instead of his own. When Daddy came back, he had to sleep in his own bed and

usually made a fuss. Daddy related this story of how he decided to quit RCA and come back to Nashville and work for Neuhoff Packing Co. One evening while Momma was cooking supper, Daddy overheard Robert asking Momma who is that man that comes to sleep with you every once and a while. He then knew it was time to quit that job even though it was excellent money for the 1950s/60s. In Nashville, Jeff was born in 1961. We initially started attending Joywood Church of Christ upon returning to Nashville while living in the trailer that Daddy brought back from Cheyenne, WY. Within six months, we moved to a home in the Riverwood area of East Nashville where we attended Riverwood Church of Christ and later Jackson Park Church of Christ. Daddy and Momma’s goal was to get to the farmland they bought in either Brentwood in 1962 or Neely’s Bend in 1966 and build a house. Neely’s Bend was the choice that was made. That was finally accomplished in January of 1972 where we started attending Neely’s Bend Church of Christ and later went to Madison Church of Christ.

Momma loved to sing and that was something that you would always hear around the house as she was doing her chores as a mother and wife. Momma and Daddy raised three boys that loved to eat and she made lots of good food every day and especially during the holidays. Even though she taught every day, she would make a full breakfast before school and a full meal at night. There were many long nights that she spent cleaning up the kitchen or Saturdays when she cleaned the house when Daddy would get us boys out to do work or visit relatives. That is not to say we didn’t have our own chores. During the spring and summer when the garden was growing, we were picking and preparing the fruit and vegetables to put in the two large deep freezers which were enjoyed throughout the year. During strawberry season, Momma would make at least six strawberry pies a week (which were gone at the end of each week) and still put strawberries away in the freezer to enjoy later. Momma loved chocolate. She was a chocoholic. Anytime she made a chocolate cake, it had just as much chocolate as one could humanly get in a cake. She also had her stashes of chocolate.

Momma learned how to play the piano and we would hear her singing when she had finished her work that day. She taught Robert how to lead singing at church when he was fourteen at Neely’s Bend Church of Christ. Bro. John Hudson was the minister and started the worship service class to help those who wanted to serve the Lord. On the first day of that class that Sunday afternoon, Robert sent his parents into a tailspin because he volunteered to lead singing and had never done it before or anything in the pulpit for that matter. My mother being a music major from Lipscomb was kind of putting her reputation on the line as a teacher. My parents went back and forth as to what kind of songs to sing because there was only an hour and a half before worship started. However, it worked out in the end.

We went on various outings, events, and vacations. Throughout the 60s and into the early 70s, we went on vacations to Panama City, FL where we stayed in a trailer that our Uncle Herman Brown had right on the coast or to East Tennessee where Daddy had lots of cousins on his mother’s side and venture into the Great Smoky Mountains, Roane Mountain, and Asheville, NC. We would go to the Montague Drive-in Theater to see the latest western that Daddy had selected or some Biblical film. Bob can remember Momma taking him to the opening of the Sound of Music at the Belle Meade Theater and the numerous engagements of the Nashville Symphony at the War Memorial Building. We had the family get-togethers with the Whitfields where Momma and Daddy would play cards with Don and Marian until the wee hours of the mornings and we would play with their children. We went to family reunions and funerals for relatives on both sides and learn about our families. We would return to Sparta for funerals of relatives where we learned how to whittle on cedar wood and became interested in knives as boys.

Momma had her friends mainly teacher friends that she associated with at Rosebank Elementary. Mrs. Hudgins and Mrs. Story were mentor friends being that they were ten to fifteen

years older. Joann Banks is another friend that she would go on outings and play sports. Joann and Momma decided to play tennis together and Joann said that Momma would beat her. Joann got her a trophy crowning her match and they celebrated.

She also started to compose her own original songs in the late 70s through the 90s which she diligently recorded in our home in four part harmony all by herself. After meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas mostly or when we would have people over to eat, she would play the piano and we would either listen to her sing or we would all join along.

After retirement, she and Daddy moved around trying to find the right place to finally settle down after selling the farm in Neely’s Bend. They finally settled in White Bluff, Tennessee where they were both members at White Bluff Church of Christ.

In the final years of her life, she moved in with Bob and Tarina and attended Nashville Rd Church of Christ until she became a resident at Stone Creek Memory Care where she made all of the arts and crafts that are displayed down front. She then attended services at Clarendale where Bob holds services for the residents of that facility.