25 March 1912 - 16 April 1991
b. Portland, Sumner County, Tennessee
d. Warsaw, Kosciusko County, Indiana
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"Nana" loved everybody. From her perspective, everyone in the world is all related as one great family. She never set out to prove or document it, but she loved to travel and enthusiastically celebrate auld and new acquaintances with gusto, talking kin with everyone she met. Her religion had little, if anything, to do with what people believed and everything to do with how they acted and treated each other. I never heard her argue about religious beliefs. Usually, if someone said something she disagreed with, she would just wrinkle her nose and make a cute face to express her disapproval, albeit sometimes silently staring a hole through them but more often cutting her eyes and offering a sweet smile. She was LGBTQ+ affirming when affirming wasn't cool, and she said same-gender couples who were in love should marry. Her deeply devoted and unconditional love held our wonderful cousins and extended family together closely in special ways throughout her life as no one else could. She never had time to not love anyone.
My grandmother grew up as a PK (preacher's kid) in Sumner County, Tennessee, on the Kentucky line near Westmoreland, and Hopkins County, Texas, near Cumby, under extreme economic hardships. She was afflicted with polio as a child. In their teenage years, she and her two sisters moved to Indianapolis to work in a nylon factory. She and my grandfather met, fell in love, and were married at Central Avenue Methodist Church (recently renovated as Indiana Landmarks Campus). As a young mother, she spent the first two years of my father's life confined to Sunnyside Terburuculosis Sanitarium. After that, no one could hold her back.
Nana was a bundle of energy who slowed down for no person. A newspaper search yields a plethora of articles in the Noblesville Ledger about the activities of organizations, friends, family, and neighbors. She loved to host a variety of social events, which often included gathering around the piano for group sing-alongs. She was as likely to be found tuckpointing a chimney on the roof as at a formal gala, sharing corsages she had made from her beautiful flower gardens. She and my grandfather sold Christmas trees every year in the side yard. She wheeled and dealed at her garage sales, which she often held, with all kinds of antiques and household items she constantly collected and refurbished. She kept several beehives in a small grove of cherry trees, ensuring daily honey and lots of cherry pies. All this only scratches the surface of her extremely adventurous life.
Irene taught Sunday School at Carmel United Methodist Church. She served as Worthy Matron in the Carmel Chapter No. 581 of the Order of the Eastern Star. She was very active in the West Delaware Home Demonstration Club and the Hamilton County Indiana Extension Homemakers.
Thelma Irene Brown and William Malcolm James Lawson were married on 1 November 1929. They had one son, my father, William Harris Lawson Sr, and one daughter, Dorothy Irene Lawson, who died at birth. They had one foster daughter, Betty Louise Mundy. Twenty-one years after my grandfather's passing, Irene married Allen John Lindley on 26 November 1988 at Carmel Wesleyan Church, with my father and me assisting the pastor as officiants. She died on 16 April 1991 and was buried beside my grandfather in the Masonic Garden at Oaklawn Memorial Gardens in Hamilton County, Indiana.
Parents:
Harris Brown Brown 1887-1954
Ina Belle Benton 1885-1972
Maternal Lineage:
Mary Kates 1798-1872, mother of Charity Elizabeth Spear 1826-1909, mother of Elizabeth Adeline Crawford, mother of Ina Belle Benton, mother of Thelma Irene Brown
Spouse 1 : William Malcolm James Lawson 1908-1967
Married: 17 Nov 1929
Children:
- Dorothy Lawson 1930-1930
- William Harris Lawson 1931-2020
Spouse 2: Allen John Lindley 1911-1997
Married: 26 Nov 1988
21 March 1887 - 6 July 1954 (67)
b. Sumner County, Tennessee
d. Shelbyville, Shelby County, Kentucky
Mary Martin, mother of Mary Polly Stanfield, mother of Frances Rebecca Haralson, mother of Chaney Hannah Lane, mother of Sarah Ann Sherron, mother of Harris Brown Brown
- Ina Vastie Brown 1907-2000
- Linda Mae Brown 1910-1992
- Thelma Irene Brown 1912-1991
- Ara Mae Brown 1935-2014
- Irene Elizabeth Brown 1939-2011
- William Daniel Brown 1943-2003
- Barbara Jean Brown 1944-2014
- Dorothy Ann Brown 1940-2015
17 August 1855 - 12 November 1939
- Lula Effie Brown 1877-1906
- Delana C. Brown 1879-1939
- Myrtle Armiza Brown 1881-1910
- Hattie Lee Brown 1883-1938
- Florence Brown 1885-1904
- William Hall Brown 1887-1921
- Harris Brown Brown 1887-1954
- Joseph David Brown 1889-1961
- Munchie Trousdale Brown 1893-1934
- Fount Hutchison Brown 1895-1962
- Dewey Mabel Brown 1899-1981
- Beulah Brown 1902-1962
- Alemeda Brown 1853-1895
- James Henry Brown 1855-1939
- George Anthony Brown 1857-1944
- Elizabeth Louisa Brown 1860-1938
- Nancy E Brown 1863
- Joseph Seaton Bown 1867-1954
- William Ed Brown 1868-1945
- Armittee Brown 1871-1955
- Queen Idella Brown 1873-1912
- Lucinda Bernetter Brown 1877-1916
- Raymond Lecania Brown 1892-1933
- Velma Rheid Brown 1895-1977
- Lesbia Brown 1898-1987
- Eugene Paul Brown 1902-1991
d. Sumner County, Tennessee
- Louis Berry Holly Brown 1822-1899
- Lucinda Carrie Brown 1824-1901
- Simpson Cantrell Brown 1826-1863
- Vincent Markham Brown 1826-1915
- Parthenia Brown 1828-1880
- William Hiram Brown 1829-1905
- Irena M Adeline Brown 1832-1915
- George Washington Brown 1834-1868
- Rochina Brown 1837-1915
- Emily Jane Brown 1840-1845
- Jeremiah Brown Jr 1843-1925
- Aaron Robert Brown 1845-1917
- Nancy Docia Brown 1848-1918
- Jacob Cantral Brown 1797-1884
- Jeremiah Harris Brown 1799-1880
- Mildred Brown 1801-1885
- Tyre Harris Brown 1801-1872
- William Brown 1804-1853
- Sarah Brown 1810-1871
- Mary Jane Brwon 1812-1880
- Anthony C Brown 1822-1880
- Jonathan Leonard Brown 1827-1903
- Eleanor Brown 1763-1850
- William Brown 1767-1808
- Thomas W Brown 1769-1855
- Susannah Brown 1770-1840
- Elizabeth Brown 1770-1828
- Soloman Brown 1772-1849
- Robert Kimbrough Brown 1774-1849
- Sarah Brown 1776-1841
- Leonard Seale Brown Jr 1785-1851
- Leondard Seale Brown 1740-1833
- William Brown
- Robert Brown
- John H Brown
- Indiana
- Hamilton County | Carmel
- Marion County | Indianapolis
- North Carolina
- Caswell County | Hillsboro
- Tennessee
- Sumner County | Gallatin | Westmoreland
- Texas
- Hopkins County | Cumby
Family Photo. "Thelma Irene Brown," ca. 1970.
Bibliography
"A Historic Place to Meet, Play, Love," 2024. Indiana Landmarks Campus. Indiana Landmarks. www.indianalandmarks.org/our-historic-sites/indiana-landmarks-center-campus/ Accessed 17 March 2024.
"Our History," 2023. Westminster Village North. www.westminstervillage.com/about/our-history/ Accessed 17 March 2024.
"Sunnyside TB Sanitarium Indianapolis." Sunnyside Sanatorium was a tuberculosis hospital located in Oaklandon, Indiana, east of Indianapolis that opened in 1917. Generative AI Search Result, Google, www.google.com/search?q=sunnyside+tb+sanitarium+indianapolis Accessed 8 Mar. 2024.
The Noblesville Ledger. Search "Irene Lawson, 1933-1991, Indiana, Noblesville." Newspapers by Ancestry. www.newspapers.com/search/?query=Irene%20Lawson&p_province=us-in&p_city=noblesville&dr_year=1933-1991 Accessed 18 March 2024.
Wikipedia Contributors. "Home Demonstration Clubs," 3 July 2022. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_demonstration_clubs Accessed 18 March 2024.
W. H. Bass Photo Company. "Sunnyside Sanitarium," 1925. Pamela Tranfield Memorial Collection. Indiana Historical Society. images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/dc012/id/5732/ Accessed 17 March 2024. Photograph.
The original date of this post is 25 March 2024, the 112th birthday of Thelma Irene Brown.
Updated 8 September 2025.
