Jean Irene Smith Browne passed away at age 98 (100 as far as she was concerned) on August 7, 2024 at Bridge Haven Memory Care in Lawrence, KS, ending a long life well-lived. Jean’s death marks the end of an era for the Smith clan of Sherburne, NY. The middle child of five, Jean, with her three sisters and one brother, grew up on a farm on the edge of town raising dairy cows and growing peas, cabbage, potatoes. With 25 rooms, their home also served as a boarding house for traveling salesmen and farmhands. When she wasn’t helping with copious amounts of laundry or doing farm chores (imagine hours of shucking peas), she ran around with her sisters, participated in spelling bees, entered sewing competitions, played saxophone and organ, and went to dances with kids from neighboring towns.
Knowing the power of education, Jean’s parents, Edwin Potter and Gertrude Howard Smith, expected all of their children to go to college, and in 1943 Jean enrolled at Cornell University. As a woman she was told she had three options for study: music, nursing, or home economics. Perhaps it was due to her penchant for sewing, but she chose home economics. As with all the Smith Girls, Jean joined the Delta Gamma house and while there engaged in rigorous academic research projects such as “Can repetitive liver consumption increase one’s desire to eat it?” The cooks in the DG house prepared a variety of liver-based meals just for Jean who dutifully ate each and every one. In the end, her findings ran counter to her hypothesis when it was concluded that “there is no positive correlation between eating and liking liver”.
Graduating in 1947, Jean catapulted into adulthood, taking a teaching job, meeting and marrying William Kingman Browne, of Norwich, NY, and having her first child all by the end of 1948. She quickly had two more children and dedicated her twenties and thirties to raising a family. Bill’s job took the family from New York to Ohio (Newark and Perrysburg) and finally to Kansas where they bought a house at the end of Roe Avenue in Corinth Hills, Prairie Village.
Jean was always working, cooking, entertaining, or collecting in the name of fun, investment, or thriftiness (salts, anything cherry or copper, dishes, silverware, coins, Norman Rockwell Christmas edition silver plates, used wrapping paper, you name it). She was also active in Delta Gamma, Welcome Wagon, Ozark Wilderness Waterways, Lunch Bunch, and bridge games anywhere, anytime. Despite being a home economics major, she will not be remembered for her cooking as much as her ability to make her home feel like your home. (There were no locked doors, you just walked on in.) It was here in Prairie Village that “Aunt Jean” and “Uncle Bill” were born and continued to live on until Bill’s death in 2016.
More than for hospitality, Jean would like to be remembered for her work with teachers, introducing them to the value of investing. She began her finance career in Kansas City with Waddell and Reed in the 60s and soon became one of the first women in the state of Kansas to earn a certified financial planner (CFP) license. She would continue to grow her career under the tutelage of Ken Ogden of Ogden Financial in Topeka working into her 80s. Up to the end, she would share investment tips with anyone who would listen: diversify, time value of money, don’t be afraid to be aggressive, always be investing!
While work and career are definitely important in one’s life, what matters more is what kind of person we are. Jean was a kind, patient, giving, thoughtful, loving, supportive, and positive human being…one of the good ones. In her honor, commit an act of kindness, drink a Manhattan or glass of cheap wine, or play a game with a kid, preferably Pitch, Russian Bank, or Rummikub.
Jean is survived by her very grateful children: Linda McCoy of Lawrence, KS, Steve of Pittsburg, KS, and Jeff (Cappy) of Fraser, CO; grandchildren: Aimee Polson (Bret) of Lawrence, KS, Will (Megan) of Kansas City, MO, Emily Garson (Adam) of San Diego, CA, Lindsey Clancey (Eric) of Prairie Village, KS, Hally Bini (Kenny) of St. Louis, MO, Samantha Gallegos (Adam) of Fort Collins, CO and 8 great-grandchildren, as well as her extended family including the Drexlers, Moores, Aldens, and McElroys whom the Smith girls insisted get together once every other year. The family will have a private ceremony later this year and Jean will be buried in Westside Cemetery in Sherburne, NY in the Smith Family plot. Praise and thanks to all the wonderful, caring, tireless staff of Madel House at Bridge Haven. None of us could have made this final journey without you!
Private family services will happen at a later date.
