Leota Linae Wilson

Leota Linae Wilson was born the second eldest of seven children to Charles and Clara Gange in Nevis, Minnesota. She was "87 years young". The family was orphaned in 1933 and she went to live with foster parents in Daluth, Minnesota. She graduated from Maplewood Seventh Day Adventist Academy in Hutchinson, Minnesota. She married Lester Elroy Brown in 1949 but illness widowed her in 1956. After that she took their son and moved out west to Tacoma, Washington.

She worked as a Nurses Assistant until earning her LPN license in 1962. She worked as a nurse for over 35 years in Washington, Oregon, Kansas, Wyoming, and Arizona. Mother loved Arizona best. This is where she met James Odies Colbert. While both in their sixties, the two of them forged an oasis and home in the desert, twelve miles from the Grand Canyon near Kingman, Arizona. Illness caused them to move to Oregon and live with her eldest son and family in Salem.

During the past eleven years, she has become Grandma Lee to a whole new family. Cancer took her at home on Sunday, September 8th, "Grandparents Day".

She is survived by her three sons, Ralph E. (Deborah) Brown of Salem; Randall G. Brown of Carson City, Nevada; and Steve (Peggy Sue) Wilson of Kingman. She is also survived by eleven grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and many friends who loved and will miss her. A Memorial Service is pending.