Story Photos
 Photo by Roger Werth The Rev. Tom Adams holds Dana Brown's ever-present sailor's cap as he stands beside Brown's director's stool during the late R.A. Long High School teacher's memorial Sunday. The service drew more than 600 mourners. |
Hundreds pack church for Dana Brown's celebration of life
Monday, March 12, 2007 10:54 AM PDT
By Leslie Slape
Printable version
E-mail this articleRarely does a person attend their own wake and direct their memorial.
But Dana Brown was no ordinary person.
A director to the core, Brown planned his own celebration of life service. He chose the speakers, the music and the set -- which featured his director's stool and his trademark cap.
But Brown, who died of cancer March 1, was as much a teacher as he was a director. And in his last months, he imparted lessons about facing death, said Susan Donahue, one of three speakers at Brown's memorial service Sunday afternoon at Longview Community Church.
Donahue said after Brown, 61, learned in November that his cancer was terminal, he helped everyone -- his fellow faculty members at R.A. Long High School, his friends, his family and especially his students -- cope with his impending death.
Brown even arranged to have counselors attend his memorial service in case any of his students needed to talk after the ceremony.
Looking out at the crowd of more than 600 people, Donahue said Brown gave her good advice for taking over as director of the Dana Brown Mainstage Theatre, which the school district renamed in his honor.
"He said, 'Always surround yourself with the best people. That's what I do.' "
And that's what Brown did in January. The longtime director asked friends to arrange a gathering of loved ones so he could say goodbye. About 400 people attended the wake, in which people shared anecdotes of how Brown touched their lives.
Brown wasn't afraid of dying, said the Rev. Tom Adams, who, at Brown's request, came from California to lead Sunday's service.
In a short videotaped interview with Adams that was aired during the service, Brown said he came close to dying several times -- in combat during the Vietnam War, from a heart attack several years ago and during an earlier bout with cancer -- and he said those brushes with death intensified his faith that God was with him. He said he looked forward to what was to come after death.
"I'll get a new body," he said. "Taller, maybe."
Laughter was present as often as tears during Sunday's service. Before beginning his eulogy, Adams clapped Brown's omnipresent sailor's cap upon his head and took a seat in the director's chair.
"Oh my gosh, is this what everything looks like from Dana's perspective?" said Adams, grinning at the crowd.
Adams, who played roles in "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Oliver!" in the 1980s, said Brown taught many lessons.
"In a rainy part of the world, he taught us how to play indoors," he said.
"... He taught us that theater is not performed to mimic life, but to change it."
Adams reminded the listeners -- many of whom wore T-shirts advertising plays Brown directed during his 27 years with Mainstage -- that Brown always struck the set after the show closed.
"Today we are striking the set after the last performance," Adams said. "He would say, 'It's done and something new needs to come. You can't receive a new thing if you're holding onto the old.' "
Past Month's Most Commented Stories