West Lebanon, N.H. – Thelma Naomi Brown May died peacefully of old age on April 26, 2013 at home, surrounded by family. She was born on February 19, 1911, in West Covington, Ky., the daughter of James Brown and Lucy Millichamp Brown.
She was the matriarch of the Brown family whose members live throughout the United States and in New Zealand. The youngest of three brothers and two sisters, Thelma was the last surviving member of that immediate family, whose lives (parents and children) spanned 142 years, from 1871 to 2013.
Thelma had an active childhood in her beloved West Covington community, where her family had deep roots. Her maternal grandfather, John Millichamp, built the home in which she was born, as well as the first public school in the community and the first Methodist church. She enjoyed family and church picnics in Covington's Devou Park and summer outings to the Cincinnati, Oh., Zoo; a paddlewheel steamboat carried her family and others up the Ohio River to a local amusement park, Coney Island.
Her mother died when Thelma was 10. Her father was a mechanical engineer and inventor, often away from home traveling to work sites in places such as Dayton, Oh. and Titusville, Pa. As a result, Thelma was sent at age 12 to live with Brown family relatives in Oak Park, Il. She greatly enjoyed that year, but was called back after a year because her family missed her. Following graduation from Holmes High School and a local business college, she began a secretarial career at the height of the Depression, first in Cincinnati, and then in Chicago. Her adventurous spirit led her to travel alone by train to the Grand Canyon, still a relatively new National Park, and explore down to the Colorado River. Returning to Chicago, at work she met her future husband, Wallace May, whom she married on her birthday in 1938. They raised a family in Chicago; West Covington; and Cincinnati; their close marriage lasted 55 years until his passing in 1993.
In a 55 page history she wrote of the Millichamp and Brown families covering the period 1830-1997, Thelma described her parents' passion for education, which helped propel two brothers to careers as electrical engineers, another as an accountant, and her sister as a teacher. Thelma concluded her work career in 1978 as an executive secretary with the Cincinnati Board of Education. She was an accomplished pianist, playing classical and popular music from memory at home well past her hundredth birthday. In the history, she recalled her father and eldest brother replacing gas lamps at home with electricity and, during a time of high unemployment, converting their kitchen to a commercial bakery managed by her mother, with the baked goods being delivered in baskets to local homes by her older siblings.
Thelma was sustained in her later years by an outpouring of affection from her family, with calls, cards and visitors arriving from throughout the country, from New Zealand, and from Russia, from which her daughter-in-law, Natalia, immigrated in 1997. She drew great strength from, and gave support to, her beloved neighbors and friends at West Lebanon's Quail Hollow Senior Living Community, and in Hartland, Vt.
She was a lover of the plants and animals, mountains, hills, valleys, rivers and streams of her native Kentucky, and New Hampshire and Vermont.
Thelma will be remembered as a loving parent, grandparent, and aunt, and as a wise counselor. Family members recall her love of children; kindness; quick wit that pleased and never hurt; spunky personality; and compassionate spirit. Her family, immediate and extended, was her passion, and its cohesion and preservation her goal.
She is survived by her son, James, and his wife, Natalia, of Hartland, Vt.; six grandchildren, Timothy May and his wife, Teri, of Normandale, Lower Hutt, New Zealand; Brian May and his wife, Jamie May, of Midland, Mich.; Kathleen May of Baldwin, Mich.; Caitlin May and Sophia May of Hartland, Vt., and Alison May, of Los Angeles, Calif.; five great-grandchildren, Keenan and Brandon May of Normandale, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, and Christopher, Jared and Jacob May of Midland, Mich.; 8 nieces and nephews; 25 great-nieces and nephews; and 43 great-great nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her husband, Wallace, in 1993; son, Donald, in 1975; brothers, John Leslie in 1971, James Dewey in 1983, and Myron Joseph in 1987; and sister, Beulah Elizabeth Brown Kroger Osborne, in 1991.
A private family service will be held. The Knight Funeral Home, White River Junction, Vt., is in charge of arrangements. A celebration of her life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, (603) 224-9945, www.forestsociety.org.