Gerrie Lawless Brown, 75, of Harrisonburg, died January 6, 2014, at Sentara RMH Medical Center, following an extended illness. The daughter of Stoneman Lawless and the late, Margaret Craddock Lawless, and the sister of the late Leland Lawless, she was born on February 13, 1938, in Stuart, Va.
She received a BA degree from Asbury College (now Asbury University), in 1960, majoring in Secondary Art Education. Her education continued through studying with nationally recognized instructors at Springmaid Beach Watercolor Workshops in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and at other workshops in Hampton, Blacksburg, Richmond, and Charlottesville, Va.
She began her teaching career in 1960 at Drewry Mason High School, before moving to the Shenandoah Valley in 1962. Over the years, she taught at Blue Ridge Community College, the former Studio Arts Shop, and the Harrisonburg Recreation Center.
Gerrie exhibited locally with the Shenandoah Valley Watercolor Society, of which she was the founding president. She also exhibited with the Signature 9 Gallery in Roanoke, Va. She was a signature member of the National Watercolor Society and an artist member of the Virginia Watercolor Society. Her work has been published in Best of Watercolor II and Best of Watercolor, Painting Texture, Rockport Publishers, 1997.
She was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Harrisonburg, where she served as a deacon and an elder, and a former member of Elkton Presbyterian Church. She devoted her adult life to her faith, her art, her family and friends.
She is survived by her husband, Richard Thomas Brown; three daughters, Ann B. Siciliano and husband, Mark, Betsy B. Kennedy and husband, Dan, and Jane M. Brown, all of Harrisonburg; two grandchildren, John Siciliano and Maggie Siciliano, also of Harrisonburg; and her father, Stoneman Lawless, of Collinsville, Va.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests expressions of sympathy be made in her memory to Asbury University Institutional Advancement, One Macklem Drive, Wilmore, KY 40390, or to First Presbyterian Church, 17 N. Court Square, Harrisonburg, VA 22802.
A service of Witness to the Resurrection in celebration of Gerrie’s life will be held at First Presbyterian Church on Friday, January 17, at two o’clock by the Rev. Jon Heeringa.
The family will receive friends following the memorial service. |
