Brown, Lee Benjamin

Lee Benjamin Brown, 101, of Blacksburg, died peacefully at his home on Wednesday, November 5, 2014. Lee was born October 16, 1913 in Mobile, Ala. to Eugene and Blanche (Lengsfield) Brown. He was a 1931 graduate of Mobile’s Murphy High School. He then moved to New Orleans, where he worked for the family paper products business.

He served in the United States Army during World War II, landing in Normandy on D-Day + 30. Lee had a distinguished career in life insurance and financial planning. He lived in New Orleans until 2005, when he and his wife Annette (Lisitzky) Brown were flooded out by Hurricane Katrina. They then moved to Blacksburg, where they resided in the Warm Hearth Village Retirement Community. Lee was a long-time member of Rotary International and a dedicated volunteer at Blacksburg’s Lewis-Gale Hospital.

He was preceded in death by his wife and by his sisters Frances Brown and Catherine (Brown) Friedler. Lee is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Ezra (Bud) and Jo Brown, of Blacksburg; grandsons, Benjamin Lee Brown, of Alameda, Calif, and Daniel Brown, of Portland, Ore; great-granddaughter, Phoebe Rose Brown LeVine, of Portland, Ore; nephew, John E. Friedler and niece, Nancy Friedler, both of Highland Park, Ill; cousins, Jack Lengsfield of New Orleans, Bert Wallbrunn of St. Louis, Mo, and Phyllis Feibelman of Mobile; and his remarkable caregiver, Aldora Green of Blacksburg.

The family will receive friends from 4 to 6 p.m. on Monday, November 10, 2014at McCoy Funeral Home in Blacksburg. Contributions to Warm Hearth Foundation(www.retire.org/foundation) or Temple Sinai of New Orleans(www.templesinaino.org).