Brown, Alice Cowles, 1919-2017

Alice Louise Cowles Brown was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1919. After graduating with a degree in English from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, she enrolled at the Carnegie Library School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, specializing in children's literature. In 1943, after working a year as a librarian in St. Louis, Missouri, she enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs) during World War II, volunteering for overseas duty in 1944. After the war, Brown returned to Ohio, but soon moved to Tacoma, Washington where she worked in the public library. She married Jordon Brown in 1950 and in 1956 they moved to Henderson, Nevada. In 1961, Alice Brown returned to work at the University of Nevada, Southern Regional Division library. Initially hired as reference librarian, she moved to documents, working to bring in as many county, state, and federal documents as possible to expand the library's small collection. After her husband's death in 1976, Brown became a docent at the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, and from 1992 to 1996 portrayed Helen J. Stewart in the park's "Living History" program. Alice Cowles Brown died in Henderson, Nevada in 2017.

Source:

Brown, Alice Cowles. "Memoir." Nevada Women's Archives, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada. September, 1996.