Faye Elizabeth Brown

LISBON FALLS – Faye Elizabeth Brown, 79, passed peacefully on Feb. 18, 2026 at Woodlands Memory Care Home in Lewiston.

Born on Aug. 14, 1946 to Arthur and Florence Reynolds of Lisbon Falls, Faye was the youngest of four children.

The Reynolds home was filled with lots of love and laughter, including with friends always stopping by and with a grandmother who lived with them and frequently spoiled the family with warm molasses cookies and singing around the family piano.

Although their house sat on a modest sized lot, the Reynolds family had a variety of farm animals: cows, pigs, chickens and even bunnies.

Faye’s love for nature began as a young girl, from enjoying her father’s garden filled with snapdragons, to enjoying endless moments of discovery and excitement as she either rode her bicycle or roamed about the woods, meadows, and pastures near their home.

Tragically, Faye would lose both her parents by the time she was 10 years old, with sister, Nancy and her husband Rufus Ham taking Faye in and raising her, along side of their own three boys. However, Faye’s new home would be remembered as a happy and wonderfully busy home.

Faye joined her local 4-H Club, truly believing the 4-H Pledge of Head, Heart, Hands, and Health – for clearer thinking, greater loyalty, larger service, and better living – for Faye’s club, her community, and her country.

After graduating from Lisbon High School, Faye trained to be a barber and opened her own barber shop, as Faye would go on to cut the hair of three generations of customers over the next 54 years.

Despite running her barber shop as a young wife and mother of two, Faye Brown wanted more out of life and began what would become a lifelong pursuit of relentless acts of volunteering in her Lisbon community.

Faye joined the Lisbon Junior Athletic League; sponsored teams; managed teams; and became vice president of the league for several years.

Faye, a great fan of Maine comic Marshall Dodge and his “Bert & I” humor, became a volunteer at The Chocolate Church Performing Center in Bath, and for the next 10 years, Faye managed the concessions for all of the shows.

Faye later got involved with the Moxie Day Parade, building and entering 20 award-winning parade floats.

Faye loved reading books and got involved with the Lisbon Falls Library, joined the Library Board, would go on to be president of the Library Board for several years.

After her library years, Faye returned to her childhood love of nature, and became a Master Gardener under the guidance of George Janosco and Diane Perry.

As Faye looked around her town, she saw a real need to revitalize the flower gardens throughout Lisbon Falls and Lisbon and addressed the need by creating “The Green Thumb Gang”, a gardening group that she hoped could develop kids in her town to learn and love gardening, as she did. The Gang become wildly successful with its town-improving gorgeous flower beds where drab once ruled.

Later, not content with success of “The Green Thumb Gang” gardens throughout Lisbon Falls and Lisbon, Faye wanted to see a Gazebo added to her town, so she raised the funding and oversaw the building of the white Gazebo that sits across from Lisbon High School.

When Faye’s own children had grown and were on their own, Faye chose to volunteer at Camp Sunshine for several summers, feeling it a privilege to provide compassion and support to families whose children had life-threatening illnesses.

Faye’s love for the history of her town led her to make a documentary of the time when the television show, “Truth or Consequences” came to the Lisbon Falls Worumbo Mill in the early 1950s. Yet Faye may best be remembered for two other Worumbo-related stories.

One story, of how Faye created the Chief Worumbo Androscoggin River Race in recognition of the town’s 200th year birthday: the first year had 63 boats and over 100 paddlers entered – by the seventh year, the race had become the largest flat-water race in the State of Maine.

The other story involved Faye flying in a small airplane over the Worumbo Mill with her 35mm camera and taking the last aerial picture of the Worumbo Mill, just seven days before the mill burned to the ground.

Faye Brown never ran for office, she just believed in herself – and “The Power of One”.

Faye Brown never settled for what was, only for what could be, and changed a community, one act of caring at a time.

Faye Brown’s capacity to love her neighbors, including racing into a burning building to save an entire family from which her heroism resulted in formal award, was always one of wanting and hoping for the best for all whom she knew.

Fifty-four years of honest advice and observations, one barber customer or volunteer event at a time…and all by a woman born with a clubfoot who was not going to let her imbalanced gait stop her from getting the most that she could out of life and all that life had to offer.

Faye was predeceased by her parents; her brother, Bobby, and her sister, Nancy; as well as by her daughter, Lynne Cooper.

Faye leaves behind her sister, Shirley (and husband Stetson); her son, Carl, her son-in-law, Danny Cooper; her granddaughters, Brianna Seamans (and husband, Dan), Sarah Stevens (and husband, Allyn), Christina Giguere, grandson, Steven Cooper (and partner, Ariel); great-grandchildren, Nolan Seamans, Addison Cooper, and Emma Bourgoin; and several nieces and nephews.

The family of Faye Brown thanks Woodlands Memory Care Home and Andwell Hospice for their professionalism, caring and friendships with Faye.

In respecting the wishes of Faye, no funeral service will be held and a private family burial ceremony is expected to be held in spring – however, please stay tuned for developing announcements honoring Faye to be issued in the near future on Facebook.

Faye Elizabeth Brown