Gayle Brown

“Women will love her that she is a woman more worth than any man; men, that she is the rarest of all women.”-Shakespeare
Gayle Brooke Brown June 23, 1943 – March 20, 2023 of Lexington, Kentucky, dedicated wife of Robert Steven Brown and devoted mother. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, to Fredrick Dixon Brooke and Sybil Vogtle Brooke, both of Birmingham. She grew up in Birmingham, Baton Rouge Louisiana, and spent time with her grandparents, Robert Thomas Brooke and Gamaliel Dixon Brooke in the summers in Panama City, Florida. She graduated high school from Brook Hill School and attended Hollins College in Virginia, graduating with a BFA from the University of Alabama. She worked on a MFA at the University of Mississippi before moving to Lexington and marrying. After working as a florist at Michler’s Florist and later in her own shop, she earned a Master’s degree from the University of Kentucky in Family Studies. She then worked on early childhood issues, including interdisciplinary treatments for spina bifida at Shriner’s Hospital in Lexington, for which the National Spina Bifida Association named her its “Humanitarian of the Year.” She also advocated for those issues at the Kentucky Legislature. Her family moved to the Washington DC area in 1996 and there she assisted the Public Health Department with the care of school children. She retired in 2008 and returned to Lexington with her family in 2014, where she was an active gardener and an advocate for gun safety.

Survivors include her husband of over 51 years, Robert Steven “Steve” Brown of Lexington, her son G. Lawrence Wells III and his wife Magda, and their son Dominic of Prague, Czech Republic, her daughter Catherine Wells Arnold and her children Fiona, Henry, Dean, and Jude of Dayton, Ohio and her son G. Robert Brown of Lexington. She is also survived by her brothers F. Dixon Brooke Jr., William Wade Brooke and her sister Sybil Brooke Sylvester, and their spouses, all of Birmingham, Alabama, and many nieces and nephews.