Mr. Brown was born in Amarillo and graduated from Price College in 1941.  He served three years as a staff sergeant with the 82nd Airborne Division Paratroopers from 1942 to 1945.  He served in England, France, Holland, Belgium and Germany, making combat jumps in Normandy, Holland and the Rhineland.

He earned the Silver Star, Purple Heart and two clusters, the Good Conduct Ribbon, the ETO bar with four stars and a unit citation and cluster.

He returned to Amarillo in 1945. He then entered the University of Tulsa, majoring in journalism. He later attended West Texas State College before joining the former Amarillo Times as a sports writer in 1948. When the Amarillo Times merged with the Amarillo Globe, Mr. Brown became sports editor of the Globe-Times. He also was a general reporter for the Globe-News.

Mr. Brown joined Pioneer Natural Gas Co. in 1954 as assistant advertising manager in Lubbock. He was promoted to advertising manager in 1959, retiring in 1986.

He was active with the Llano Estacado Boy Scouts and was a volunteer for the Northwest Texas Hospital Auxiliary. He served on the board of directors for both the Amarillo and the Lubbock Homebuilders Associations. He was a member of the Tascosa Country Club Golf Association. He had been a member of First Baptist Church for 25 years and was a member of the Henry Brown Sunday School Class.

He married Shirley Cline in 1947 at Amarillo.

Survivors include his wife; three sons, Bob Brown of Mansfield, Mike Brown of Piedmont, Okla., and Tom Brown of Amarillo; two daughters, Lou Anne Stoddard of Lewisville and Lisa Lillard of Brentwood, Tenn.; eight grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

The family requests memorials be to the First Baptist Church building fund, Meals on Wheels, the High Plains Food Bank or the Pioneer Retirees scholarship fund.