Shirley May Ansell Brown, born 7/24/1923 in Portland, Maine, died peacefully at her beloved home with family and friends around her. She died where she lived for 66 years surrounded by nature on the shores of Lake Cochituate in Natick, Massachusetts on 4/30/2025 at 101¾ years old.
Shirley grew up in Portland, Maine in a house run by strong, independent, early widowed, Russian immigrant women: her grandmother Cecelia (Listernick) Fieldman, mother Anna (Angelowitz) Ansell, along with her 1-year older brother, Julian Ansell.
She graduated Portland High School at 16 years old. After completing her freshman year of college at the University of Maine, she joined the Army with friends to help in the WWII effort. She received her army nurses’ training at Mass General Hospital and then worked nursing quadra- and paraplegic war vets coming back from Europe at Cushing Hospital in Framingham. There she met (and outranked) her future husband, Clarence Brown M.D., a corpsman while on his accelerated army education track to become an Army physician. They married in 1945 and were devoted to each other until his death 2017. After 3 years working with children with severe polio-related neurological and respiratory impairment as a nurse at Boston Children’s Hospital, she retired to start her own family, giving birth to 4 children: David (deceased), Eric, Michael (deceased), and G. Rose Brown. All her children chose to enter healing fields for their life’s work.
Shirley was a force of nature. Involved in environmental activism well before Silent Spring was a book on everyone’s lips, she was passionate about saving our earth for future generations. In the 1950’s she stated “water is going to be our most precious resource” while starting environmental organizations to push back against officials hell bent on promoting unrestrained development and who passively allowed sewage and chemical wastes to pollute our lakes, streams, and rivers. She was proud to be one of the original founders of the Lake Cochituate Watershed Association. She became the environmental expert for the League of Women Voters and other advocacy groups. She aggressively lobbied local, state, and national representatives to save our planet from contamination from sewage, insecticides, PFAS, nuclear waste, air pollution, as well as other ravages we are now experiencing at our own peril. She mentored several generations of environmental activists: parents who were concerned about their health, the health of their children and their communities, who had heard about her.
She travelled the world with her husband Clarence, hiking from North Africa/Canary Islands to the West Indies, all over Europe and North America, appreciating the flora and fauna in the wild, and continued to support many local and national wildlife conservation and social justice groups to the end of her life. She lived up to her motto: “use it or lose it” doing daily yoga, kick boxing, and walking 2-3 miles a day until her 90’s. She continued taking ½ mile walks in the woods and on the rail trails up to her 101st year of life. Either on the trail or looking over the flowering azaleas and hydrangeas framing the views from her home windows, she savored the serene landscape of her beloved Lake Cochituate.
Shirley was one of the first to espouse cooking and eating only whole and organic food. She was an excellent cook and continued to shop twice weekly at her favorite grocery store (Framingham Trader Joe’s) up to 1 month before her death and delighted in the memory of the day the Trader Joe’s staff and patrons interrupted all store activity to sing and wish her happy 100th birthday.
Shirley had a strong personality. Some know her as a longtime member of the bridge-playing community, perhaps with mixed feelings regarding her verbalization of high expectations.
Shirley leaves behind her children, Eric R. Brown (Jean Camuso) and Gretchen “Rose" Brown (Timothy Carlisle); her grandchildren, Jarred Brown (Lyssa Murphy) and Nathaniel Brown (Clare Mullins), Em Carlisle and Faith Lindley Brown; her great grandchildren, Arthur and Dora. Her sons David J. Brown (Dominique) and Michael A. Brown preceded her in death. As her own children spread far and wide over the U.S., she was extremely grateful for the loving 30+ years of engagement and support with holiday gatherings and frequent visits by her brother Julian’s (Eva) son Steven and his family: wife, Mary Ansell, and their children Louisa (Ben), Rachel, and Sam.
Shirley insisted on remaining in her home to the end. Successful in helping her with that, a special thanks go out to her angel, Heather, who lovingly cared for her as true friend and family member from 3 years ago to the last hours of her life. We also are thankful for the wonderful home support she received from Senior Helpers of MetroWest and Good Shepherd Hospice.
Before her death, Shirley reminisced about our family coming to the U.S. 140 years ago as poor immigrants succeeding only with the help of many. She asked, “When did we become so mean?” and suggested strongly that no flowers be sent, only generous donations to nonprofit environmental and social justice organizations of your choice to help our future kid’s generations of generations (L’dor v’dor), to help counter the current and future environmental and social justice catastrophes that are fomented by our current leadership. A private family gathering is planned.