Robert and Bessie’s Final Years and Legacy

After selling the Ford garage in 1949, Robert worked in Bradley as the postmaster until his death on August 24, 1957, at the age of sixty-one. Saddened by her husband’s passing, Bessie initially remained in the familiar surroundings of her own home close to family and friends in the Bradley community. However, in the mid-1960s she moved to Bozeman, Montana to care for her granddaughters while her daughter, Verna, taught school. During Verna’s time off from her job in the summers, Bessie typically resided with her son, Robert, and his family in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Regularly flying between destinations, Bessie loved air travel and felt fortunate that during her life she witnessed, as she called it, the “horse and buggy days,” the automobile era, and regular passenger airline …show more content…
In turn, their children transferred the value of learning to the subsequent generation. Consequently, all six of Robert and Bessie’s grandchildren also acquired college degrees. Mary and Edward’s daughter, Vallori, earned both a law degree and a master’s degree in speech therapy. Robert and Jean’s daughters, Kathy and Lisa, obtained bachelors degrees in business and accounting respectively. Their son, Robert Leslie Brown, named after his grandfather, graduated from the University of Minnesota’s medical school, interned at the Mayo Clinic, and became an orthopedic surgeon. Verna and Hal’s daughter, Leslie, received a master’s degree in French and International Business at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Furthermore, she attended the Sorbonne in Paris. Their daughter, Hayley, graduated with a Ph.D. from Berkeley and became a professor of economics at Washington State University.