IN MEMORIAM: Barbara J. (Feather) Brown, 81;
Teacher Active In SUNY Life; Raised Family Here
ONEONTA – Barbara Joan (Feather) Brown, a retired teacher active in community and conservation causes who raised her family in Oneonta, died Aug. 28, 2015, at Nathan Adelson Hospice in Las Vegas, surrounded by family, following a brief illness. She was 81.
She was born Jan. 4, 1934, in Uniontown, Pa., the youngest of four children, to Karl Ward Feather and Emma Sybil (Castle) Feather, her parents both teachers in Preston County, W.Va., schools. She attended Tunneltown, W.Va., schools, graduating from Tunnelton High School in 1953.
She participated in 4-H and her school newspaper, receiving awards for her fast typing and 4-H projects, and was a correspondent for The Dominion News (now Dominion Post) of Morgantown, W.Va., for several years. She was pianist for the United Methodist Church in Tunnelton, W.Va., from 1947-53.
She became a teacher in Preston County and Brooke County, W.Va., schools, and while an elementary music teacher in Rowlesburg, W.Va., met her future husband, Foster L. Brown, then a Rowlesburg High School science teacher. The couple was married in Tunnelton on Sept. 1, 1956, by her father-in-law, the Rev. Durward B. Brown, and was wed for 24 years.
