Nellysford
Nelson County, Virginia
A friend of mine from my high school days now lives in Florida. Joe jokes with me often how his late father would call him daily from his home state of Tennessee and give him the daily obituary report from the local paper. Now we joke with each other that we are sort of doing the same. I say this, not to make fun of the piece I am writing to you today, but I know the two people I am writing about here would laugh as well. It seems as though I have been doing this a lot lately. If you read our site very much you know that I have penned a lot of stories about those leaving us recently.
I was talking to my friend and dentist Jim Rice last night on the phone. In the course of the conversation her said, “that was sad about Chuck and Lee Brown, you know we live very close to them here in Stoney Creek.” I said, “what happened?” He told me they had both passed away within a few days of each other.
I knew I hadn’t seen Chuck out lately in his small blue car with the fake hands of a body hanging out of the back, his license plate read ISpy. Chuck, and Lee were sort of spies, they both worked for the FBI back in the day. Chuck worked for other secret agencies before that, but well, it’s a secret. They laughingly got the nickname Charlie Brown because of their very names!
Here’s a little more about Chuck from his official bio we included in a story on him over a decade ago.
“He was raised as an ‘army brat’ and as a dependent lived in numerous states and Europe where his father was assigned. His father graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point and when it came time for Chuck to choose to play basketball for the University of Kentucky or accept an appointment to West Point, he chose basketball. While attending the U of K Chuck played basketball and joined the Kappa Alpha fraternity. His average score as a ‘point guard’ for the team was 24 points a game. His couch was proud of him. His average score in the classroom was 24 points a test. His parents were not proud of him. His fraternity brothers at Kappa Alpha didn’t know the difference between basketball and mathematics and that explained why the fraternity was always on ‘social probation’ and remains to this day on probation as confirmed by a recent visit. His best friends were his fraternity brothers and states, “ but I can’t remember their names and that explains why I probably averaged 24 points a test score.”
Chuck’s parents asked him what he was going to do now as a result of leaving college. He said, “I’m going to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation”. And he did after an extensive background investigation. The FBI put Chuck through the ‘ringer’ requiring him to work many different shift schedules; however, in return, the FBI also put Chuck through Fordham University. After earning his college degree, Chuck earned the privilege of meeting all the requirements for Special Agent training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. Chuck continued his career with the Bureau for a number of years including voluntary time serving as an officer in the U.S. Army Special Forces during the period leading up to and including the invasion of the Bay of Pigs. Chuck is proud to have donned a Green Beret. “De Oppresso Libre.”
I first met Chuck back in the days when he drove a classic 1980s Mercedes Benz 4 door diesel with a license plate saying Fordham60. That car was a beast! My wife is a Fordham grad, so when we ran into Chuck and Lee at the monthly RVCC pancake breakfast, we eventually made the connection to the car. He and Yvette went through endless memories of how Fordham had changed over time. We we became friends then and there for the next 20 years or so. Both Chuck and Lee were pilots, so am I, so those conversations went on forever too!
A little known fact, Chuck provided background security here in Nelson during that same year in 2008 for members of Synchronicity on Adail Road. Some of their members had been murdered in a bombing at a hotel in India during a conference. International press descended on Nellysford for days. Chuck was quietly in the background managing the security around the event and using his prior skills in the FBI to help assist international law enforcement in tracking down those responsible. Here’s where we broke that particular story as it happened.
Chuck, Lee and I would often meet up for lunch at Basic Necessities in Nellysford or then Stoney Creek Bar & Grill (now Iron & Ale) and later Margaratas in Nellysford. Lee had multiple sclerosis and as the years ticked by you could see the major decline in her heath. I’d see Chuck in his, and her, final years daily picking up food somewhere to take back to Lee at home. We’d chat in a parking lot somewhere and briefly catchup, but I knew time was running out for both. Chuck was dedicated to the very end. In his mid and late 80s he was out in all kinds of weather making sure Lee had her favorites. Within the last 2-3 years she went downhill quickly and was more or less confined to her home.
Once Margaratis closed in October of 2023, I rarely saw Chuck out anymore. And I did notice I began seeing less and less of him on the road. It’s why I was saddened and shocked once Jim Rice told me about their deaths Tuesday night. Neither of us knew about their memorials held in mid February.
I will miss Chuck and Lee both. We had so many great conversations over the years. Their passing is a continual change we are seeing, especially in Stoney Creek as longtime residents there age out.
Chuck, you both have a great view now. Rest easy, you did well and had a very good run.
Here’s more on them in their obits here: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/newsvirginian/name/charles-brown-obituary?id=54320074
