Patricia Rose Brown (Phipps), 90, passed away peacefully at her home on October 16, 2025 with her family surrounding her with love. Pat made friends easily and never knew a stranger. She was a proud graduate of the Sacred Heart Convent in St. Joseph, MO, attended but didn’t love Ottumwa Heights college for two years, and earned her B.A. in Accounting from the University of Kansas. In her career, she worked as secretary to Bishop John P. Cody, followed by her first government job working for the Air Force-Civil Air Patrol Liaison Office thanks to her knowledge of shorthand for dictation. Steno pads are strewn everywhere in her home, and she continued to write many notes to herself in shorthand in spite of-or because-her children urged her to write with words we could read. She moved to Washington, DC, and worked for the State Department and H.Walker & Sons and loved to enjoy her lunch by the Washington Monument reflecting pool. In 1960, Pat moved to Santa Monica to work for NASA as the Secretary to the Deputy Director in an office overlooking the ocean, making a lifelong friend in roommate Linda Foster. Back in Kansas City, Pat worked for the Internal Revenue Service. After marrying Mike Brown, Pat devoted herself to parenting, running Mike’s plumbing company, and doing taxes as a small business, both with her mother in St Joe and here in Kansas City. Pat’s life came full circle when she went back to work for the Church, working for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and then St Thomas Aquinas High School, from where she retired in 2006.
Pat led a beautiful, generous and vibrant life. Never one to sit still, she was a room mother and Girl Scout leader and truly loved cheering for her children and grandchildren and would call out loudly, ‘that’s my grandchild!” Pat walked a marathon with Team in Training on Cape Cod in her later years and loved her annual trips to Las Vegas with friends, Friday evenings at the Argosy with Mike, and especially the craps table into her last months. She loved puzzles of all kinds. Having watched her aunt die with dementia, Pat began volunteering with the University of Kansas Alzheimer's Disease Research Center nearly at their outset and was a study participant continuously until the past six months. She was adamant to donate her brain upon her death, which she did. She had an enormous heart for the poor, volunteering at City Union Mission and recognized as their Volunteer of the Year and taking surplus food from HyVee to organizations and the “bridge club” of folks who lived under bridges en route to those organizations. She sponsored Johan through Unbound and loved to exchange letters with and pray for him. Pat was a devoted member of Grandparents for Gun Safety, the Divine Mercy group, book clubs and other informal social groups.
Pat had many self-proclaimed words to live by, most commonly, the following: Say Your Prayers, Smile! It is What it is! And Yo, Baby! She truly tried to make everyone she encountered feel happy, and often people were smiling because of her.
Pat is preceded in death by her beloved husband of 48 years, Mike Brown, and her fearless granddaughter, Leah Brown.
She is survived by her loving children: Gretchen (John) Caroll, Jennifer (Andy) Olson, Patrick (Dianna) Brown, Cindy (Tom) Rogers, and Kim (Doug) Jeffs. She was the cherished grandmother to Anthony Brown, Jalen and Jazmin Carroll, Jimmy, Rose and Henry Olson, Samantha (Brett) Boyle, Katie Brown, Adriana and Tommy Rogers, Olivia and Nicolas Jeffs, great grandmother to eleven children. Pat will also be deeply missed by her “sister” cousin Susan Rapids and countless people who lovingly called her friend, Mom, Grandma or Oma.
Services will be at her parish of 58 years at Queen of the Holy Rosary Church at 7023 W 71st Street. Visitation Tuesday, October 21 at 5pm-7pm beginning with the rosary. Funeral Mass on Wednesday, October 22 at 10:30am with burial at Resurrection Cemetery. Special gratitude to extraordinary care at St Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute and from Phoenix Home Care and Hospice.