Golf course manager's wife directed food service

6/30/2002

CURTICE - Phyllis A. Brown, who was in charge of kitchen and banquet facilities at Chippewa Golf Course for more than 20 years while her husband managed the course, died Thursday in St. Charles Mercy Hospital from complications of cancer. She was 74.

From the mid-1960s until retirement in the mid-1980s, Mrs. Brown oversaw food service at Chippewa, a golf course in Ottawa County's Allen Township. Her husband, William, is a golf professional and leased and managed the club from 1961 to 1990.

Mrs. Brown had no background in food management when she took over, but she thrived in the job, her husband said. Many years more than 100 banquets were held at the golf club.

“She got in there and pitched, and we had seven farm ladies who were great” working in the kitchen, her husband said. “They helped immensely, and she learned a lot from them and did just wonderful. They were kind of grandmotherly, and they were good workers.”

With activities scheduled from daybreak to long past sundown, the couple split the responsibilities of Chippewa. Mr. Brown often began at first light; Mrs. Brown would come in at noon and might stay until 11 p.m.

Mrs. Brown grew up in the Trilby neighborhood of what was then Lucas County's Washington Township, the daughter of Leroy and Grace Buck. Her family moved to the Sylvania school district, and she was a graduate of the former Burnham High School, where she met her husband.

“We went together all through high school,” he said.

While he was in the Navy during World War II, she was an Ohio Bell telephone operator. The couple married April 13, 1946.

Mrs. Brown golfed and grew flowers in the big yard of their home on the Chippewa grounds. Running the golf course gave the couple the time - and the financial independence - to spend winters in Florida, Mr. Brown said. The couple liked to attend horse races. They were ballroom dancers for years and found places to jitterbug and fox trot until a decade ago.

“She just really enjoyed the simple things of life - her family and friends she met along the way,” her daughter, Linda Miller, said.

Surviving are her husband, William H. Brown; daughter, Linda Miller; son, William H. Brown, Jr.; brother, Richard Buck; four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

There will be no visitation, and services will be private. Arrangements are by the Eggleston-Meinert Mortuary, Woodville Road Chapel.

The family requests tributes to the Hospice of Northwest Ohio in Perrysburg Township.