Remembering Sheila Rae Brown (5/26/35 - 1/17/07)

Today is the one year anniversary of the passing of our beloved Sheila Rae Brown.

(Reprint from her memorial service last year below.)

Sheila Rae Brown was born in Des Moines, Iowa on May 26, 1935 to Anne Dettmer Brown and Gordon Royer Brown. Her beloved brothers are Steve Brown and Walter Brown, and her beloved nephew is Jason Brown. Sheila moved from Los Angeles to Portland in 2003 to be with her family. Sheila loved life, her friends and family, her many cats and dogs; she loved photographing and sketching historic architecture; she loved works by the Bronte sisters, and even named her cats after their characters!

Many knew Sheila through her hard work and dedication to social justice. Sheila was a quiet force in an ever-raging battle for peace and what is right. Perhaps you remember the soft-spoken voice she would often lend to the students of Irvington Elementary School as a volunteer with the Start Making A Reader Today program? Maybe you remember her compassionate touch as she embraced stray animals through her work with the Oregon Humane Society? Or was it her intelligence, which she freely gave when she worked with Neighborhood Schools Alliance and Jefferson High School PTSA to preserve neighborhood schools and end discrimination in public education?

Could it be the thing you remember most about Sheila was her perseverance, as she worked tirelessly as a Director for the Irvington Community Association? She was bound and determined to have her beloved neighborhood recognized as historically significant. Many recall Sheila’s unselfishness and willingness to give to others despite her fifteen year battle with cancer, and health limitations. As a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Sheila devoted much of her time as a senior volunteer.

We all will remember Sheila’s warm presence and grace. But most of all, we will NEVER forget her sense of humor and wit. In the most tumultuous of times, Sheila’s humor, so often displayed in animation and written form, was a whisper reminding us all to push on, and that everything will be all right.

Sheila had a full time career as an animator and cartoonist; she worked for Hanna-Barbera, Disney and Warner Brothers. Sheila worked on the television cartoons "Bullwinkle" and "Felix the Cat." Her film credits include The Little Mermaid (1989); Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001); The Emperor’s New Groove (2000); Space Jam (1996); The Swan Princess (1994); Ferngully: The Last Rainforest (1992) and a host of popular Disney films that continue to delight children of all ages.

Unpublished 9/6/05 letter from Sheila Brown to the Oregonian:

This year six Portland Public Schools were closed: Applegate, Edwards, Kenton, Richmond, Smith, and Whitaker Middle School. Now hundreds of five through twelve-year-old elementary students must find 'safe walking routes' beyond their familiar neighborhood streets to new schools a mile or more away.

To get to Chief Joseph, children from Kenton will have to cross the complex five-way intersection of Lombard and Denver, listed as one of the most dangerous in Portland.

Children from Applegate will face a more difficult passage. In spite of assurances by one school board member who seems to regard "danger" as just a six-letter word, this won't be smooth sailing. There are no 'safe walking routes' to Woodlawn.

For the children who live around Applegate, the trip begins with crossing Lombard Street. Between Vancouver and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. ("MLK"), the two 'regulated' intersections, there are four long blocks with no available crossings. Lombard at Vancouver would be somewhat safer, since it has traffic signals and student crossing signs, but the City has failed to repaint the pedestrian walk lines on the recently repaved surfaces.

Lombard at MLK provides another of Portland's most dangerous intersections. Bryan Winchester, Director of PPS Student Transportation Services, calls MLK "a very good and safe street." No student living in the Applegate neighborhood should have to cross this arterial at this corner or any of the intersections to the south. At present, none of these are adequately regulated.

Mothers, don't let your kids follow Lombard to Woodlawn. If they walk along the north side of Lombard, past MLK, they will find no safe crossing at any point. If city officials made safety top priority, they would place adult crossing guards at 11th.

The south side of Lombard quickly degenerates into where the sidewalk ends as it approaches 11th Ave., and Lombard soon becomes Portland Highway, accomodating 50 mph traffic.

PPS claims over a dozen organizations have affirmed the 'safety' of these and other crossings. And yet it's a mystery that not one person can be found who has actually walked any of these so-called "safe walking routes." Perhaps such a trek, up to a mile long, was too challenging for a tender adult.

There are no such safe routes from Applegate to Woodlawn School. There will be a school bus running along Albina Street, with stops at Terry and Morgan. Parents are asking for school buses throughout the Applegate neighborhood to take their children to Woodlawn. Is it too much to ask that the Albina bus make two or three more stops for students within the No Man's Land between Commercial and MLK?

Safety for all of the five through twelve-year-old elementary children whose schools have been closed should be a pre-eminent priority with Superintendent Phillips, Board Members, officials at Student Transportation Services, and the City of Portland. Anything less is unacceptable and inexcusable. No child should be left behind!