Elsa P. Brown
1914 – 2009

BRUNSWICK — Elsa Parshley Brown, 94, passed on peacefully in her sleep on Aug. 31, in Brunswick.

The daughter of Howard Madison Parshley and Nancy Fredricson Parshley, she was born in Boston in 1914 and grew up in Northampton, Mass. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Smith College in 1935, majoring in music and a master’s degree in biology from Radcliffe/Harvard, but devoted the majority of her career to music.

She married Stephen Brown, M.D., in 1940 in Northampton and later moved to Amherst, Mass. She played violin in the Springfield Symphony Orchestra for 50 years and taught in the Amherst Regional School System, developing an extensive string instrument program. She enjoyed flying her husband’s plane, golf, family camping trips and was an avid life-long reader. She retired from the Springfield Symphony in 1994 and moved to Maine to be close to her family.

She  is survived by children, Anne Keith and husband, Robert, of New Gloucester, Stephen Brown of Carthage, Laurie Kennedy of Carthage and partner, Mark Silber, of Sumner, Edward Brown and wife, Candelaria Orihuela, of Santiago, Chile, and Nancy Beacham and husband, Robert, of Farmington; grandchildren, Rebecca Matusovich, Roberto Keith, Katie Kennedy, Julia Kennedy, Elsa Brown, Diana Brown, Edward Brown, Adrienne Beacham and Gwendolyn Beacham; a niece; a grandniece; and five great-grandchildren.

She was predeceased by a brother; her husband in 1980; and an infant great-grandson.