Source: https://nmahgp.genealogyvillage.com/grant/grobittextb.htm

BROWNLEE

Longtime Silver City resident Howard Reed Brownlee passed away Saturday evening at Gila Regional Medical Center, where he had been a patient for a very short time. He was 96 years old.

Mr. Brownlee was born in Kansas on Nov. 20, 1898. As a boy of ten he moved with the family to Las Cruces in a railroad boxcar with all the family belongings. The family lived in Las Cruces for many years just west of the present Loretto Shopping Plaza. Mr. Brownlee was the last surviving member of his generation of eleven children.

He is survived by two daughters, Mary B. Packard of Silver City and Carmen B. Erwin of New York City; nine grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his first wife, Roma Rea Richardson Brownlee in 1949, and his second wife, Marie Oats Brownlee in January 1992.

Mr. Brownlee moved to Silver City sixty-seven years ago in 1927. The highway from Deming was only gravel then, and he took the best part of a whole day to make the drive from Deming. His first business venture was in variety stores starting with one store in Silver city, then a second in Deming, a third in Hatch, and a fourth in Las Cruces. He was then to buy older homes and renovate or remodel them and then either resell them or rent them. Many homes in the city, which he rebuilt, are still in use. Mr. Brownlee was an active member of the Presbyterian Church of Silver City. He served on the governing boards of the church and helped with several expansions and building programs. He was one of the few remaining veterans of the First World War, having served in the Army in 1918.

A memorial service will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday at the First Presbyterian Church in Silver City with the Rev. Bob Gustafson officiating. Interment will follow in Memory Lane Cemetery.

Family members selected Curtis-Bright Funeral Home to serve them.