Verneeda Ilene Gewecke Brown of McCook, formerly of North Platte, died Dec. 18, 1999, at McCook.

She was born Dec. 21, 1911, at Ingham to Adolph Henry Gewecke and Anna Louisa Warnke Gewecke. She spent her early years around Farnam, where she graduated from school.

On Dec. 25, 1933, she married Oliver Jesse Brown at her parents’ home in Farnam. They had two children. In March 1934, they moved to Wessington Springs, S.D., to live on a farm owned by his father. They moved back to Farnam in October 1936, where they farmed until they moved to Grant in 1940. She cleaned houses and cleaned rooms at the hotel. They rented a farm along the Perkins and Keith County border and she helped her husband with the farming.

At an early age she felt a call from God to become a minister and took the Minister’s Study Course through home study course and seminars. In June 1950 she was the pastor at The Pilgrim Holiness Church in Lodgepole. She helped to build a new church there. She became an ordained minister in the summer of 1956. She also was a pastor in Sutherland, Arthur and Sidney. The Arthur pastorate was unique because the church was the world famous “Baled Straw Church.” Later, the church they had built in Lodgepole was moved to Arthur and she was a pastor in that building again. She and her husband continued to farm and do custom farming to supplement her church salary. Her God and her ministry were very important to her. She will be remembered as a loving wife, mother and grandmother.

In 1993, they left their last pastorate and moved to North Platte to be near their son. They moved to McCook five years later, when their son did.

Mrs. Brown is survived by her husband; her son, Melvin (Audrey) of McCook; five grandchildren, Sandra (Thomas) Hazen of Ankeny, Iowa, Sylvia (Eddie) Hansen, Laverne (Gegetta) and Karla (Charles) Downey, all of North Platte and Leta (David) Callaway of Esbon, Kan.; 12 great-grandchildren; two nieces; and a nephew.

She was preceded in death by her daughter, Dorothy; her parents; a sister, Faye; and two brothers, Kenneth and Edgar.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. CT Tuesday at Carpenter Memorial Chapel. Burial will be at 2 p.m. MT in the Grant Cemetery.

The North Platte Telegraph, December 19, 1999