Born January 20, 1934, in Los Angeles, CA. Boots passed peacefully March 26, 2024, in Anchorage, Alaska at the age of 90.
Boots was born in her grandmother Bootie’s house in Los Angeles, California (this is whom she got her nickname from). Boots grew up in Fillmore, 60 miles north of Los Angeles amongst orange orchards and working on the family’s citrus ranch in Bardsdale, across the Santa Clara River from Fillmore. She enjoyed riding horses and flying with her mother and father, Margaret “Peggy” and Harold “Hap”, in the airplanes he owned.
Boots went to Bardsdale Elementary School and graduated from Fillmore High School in 1951. When she was 17, her father married again to Marge Remeta. Their union brought Boots a sister, Joyce, and then a baby brother Jim. One week after her 18th birthday, she eloped with Harold “Toadie” Brown, also from Fillmore, to Las Vegas for a chapel marriage in January of 1952.
During the earlier part of her marriage, Harold worked fairly close to home in the oilfield. During this time, she became a member of The Native Daughters of the Golden West out of Ventura. In 1958, she had her first child, Eric. The family of three moved to Venezuela in 1959 for Harold’s directional drilling assignment. Family sent them off with a big bon voyage party at her grandfather Frank LeBard’s home and the party was written about in the local Fillmore Herald. The article mentioned their infant son, Eric, and their black poodle, Paulette, would go along on the trip. Often, she was alone raising young Eric while Harold’s work kept him away for weeks and months at a time, either north in Alaska, or south to Trinidad in the West Indies.
While following Harold’s oilfield career, living in Las Vegas, north and south of the Los Angeles area as well as in Trinidad for a summer, Boots and Harold added another child, Philip, born in Newport Beach in December 1966. They soon moved to Anchorage, Alaska when Philip was 5 months old and Eric 8, for Harold to manage Drilcon, a directional drilling company based out of Long Beach. The family moved out into the Sand Lake area in 1967. Since coming from busy Southern California, Boots described the Sand Lake area as being “out in the boonies”.
It was soon apparent that their infant son Philip was born deaf, a result of Boots contracting the German Measles early in her pregnancy. This turned out to be one of their biggest life challenges, learning sign language and educating Philip in the late 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.
Boots joined the Petroleum Wives of Anchorage and the Anchorage Petroleum Club in the late 1960’s. She worked as a bookkeeper in the 1970’s and also for National Oilwell in the 1990’s and 2000’s in Anchorage. She enjoyed entertaining her new and old friends and built many close relationships. Boots was quite the entertainer at her home, hosting countless neighborhood gatherings as well as longtime friends and oilfield business associates. Not many left without having been served the famous, “Boots Drink” and hearing her direct her husband, “Harold, get up and fix their drinks!”, even if only half empty.
Boots loved traveling to the islands of Hawaii and Maui for vacations, as well as visiting friends and relatives in the Fillmore area. She also enjoyed spending parts of summer at the Birch Ridge golf course outside of Soldotna, Alaska, along the 1st fairway amongst friends and family with all their own trailers and RV’s. She loved her hanging baskets of flowers in the summer, playing the organ and spending time with her family. Boots always looked forward to her stepfather, “Fitz” and mother Peggy’s visits from California - all 33 of them!
Great joy came in 1987 and 1992 with the addition of two grandsons. Her oldest grandson’s marriage brought more joy by gaining her beloved granddaughter and also her great granddaughter. Her family was the highlight of her life. Gram, as she was known to her grandkids, always looked forward to their visits and hugs.
Boots is survived by her sons, Eric (Tracie) Brown and Philip Brown, grandsons Austin and Travis (Sue) Brown, great granddaughter, all of Homer, Alaska. California family includes: brother, Jim (Kathy) LeBard, sister-in-law, Shirley Brown, nephew Russell Brown & niece, Debbie Brown, nephews Michael (Cheyenne) LeBard and Bryan Stafford. Boots was preceded in death by her mother Peggy (Fitz) Fitzpatrick, father Harold LeBard, stepmother, Marge LeBard and stepsister, Joyce Robertson. Her loving husband of 43 years, Harold Brown, passed away in 1995.
Boots will be laid to rest next to her husband, Harold, at the Bardsdale Cemetery in Fillmore, California this December 29th at 11:00.