Obituary: Vianne Brown

The Vail Valley lost arguably the most positive person on the planet on Oct. 10. Vianne “Vi” Brown was incapable of anything negative throughout her entire life.

Life for Vi began on June 29, 1938, in Willmar, Minnesota. She was born into a loving family as the second oldest of four sisters and a brother. Vi had seen pictures of mountains in magazines and was drawn to them after she graduated high school: “Before I came to the mountains, I thought that I would have to lie down on the ground to see the tops of the mountains.”

Vi and a friend had planned and saved their $200 to come to the mountains only to have her friend cancel at the last minute. Vi would not be deterred and arrived in Denver solo in 1957. She quickly found a job at Sears and Roebuck where she would serve one Byron Brown, also living in Denver, who was buying his living room furniture.

While living in Denver, Vi took a bus to A-Basin to learn how to ski, which she thought, “If I’m going to live in the mountains, I had better learn how to ski.” On the first trip up the Poma lift, Vi fell almost at the top and then slid down knocking all of the poor upcoming skiers off of the lift. Warren Miller would have been proud.

Not being one to give up, Vi, tried again. When she came close to the top, she heard a patroller yelling at her, “Don’t let go until you get to the top.” (She would heed that advice for the rest of her life.) When she arrived at the top, the wise patroller who yelled at her to hang on, asked her if she had ever skied before. She said no and the nice patroller told her to just watch him and follow. He skied 100 yards, fell flat on his face, and Vi said, “That’s where Byron fell for me.”

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If you ran into Vi in the last six years, there’s a good chance that you heard about where the love story began.

After the A-Basin and Sears encounters, Byron and Vi dated for a long three weeks before Byron asked for her hand at the Snake River Saloon in Keystone. Waste time they didn’t. Married three months later, eldest son Mike was born nine months after that. Son Todd came just a year and a half later. Byron was laid off from Martin Marietta in 1964, so Vi and Byron packed up the boys and moved to the metropolis of Vail, where just over 90 people lived. Their “favorite daughter” Cindy was born the following spring.

In 1969, Byron and Vi bought property in West Vail. They would build the home that they would remain in for the rest of their lives. While Vailites couldn’t conceive why Byron and Vi would want to live so far out of town, they found the property to be just far enough away from all the craziness of Vail.

The other two homes that were established in West Vail allowed them to have some company in the area. In a time when the community needed to come together to get things done, Vi says that this was her favorite time in her life and something that she was proud of all of her life. In the last year of her life, Vi’s children asked her to let someone else take the garbage can out to the curb, but Vi would always say: “I’m a mountain girl; we’re tough.”

And tough she was; Vi endured the loss of her son Todd in 1993, the loss of her beloved Byron in 2017, and a painful condition that would eventually take her to reunite with Byron and Todd. Vi never complained through any of the hardships. When asked to let people know when she was in pain, she responded, “I just don’t feel like you should burden other people with your pain.”

Vi’s can-do attitude was the foundation for getting things done in the Vail Valley. Vi and Byron did whatever needed to be done to make our valley a better place to live. They started the Buddy Werner League at Vail, where Vi would organize groups, coach or clean up after a party. Vi would later become the first female president of Ski Club Vail. She was also part of a committee that was responsible for bringing the first World Alpine Ski Championships to Vail in 1989.

When families realized that Vail needed a new school, Vi and friends started the Eagle Valley Community Fund. Better known as the Rummage Sale, the EVCF would grow to donate over $6 million to nonprofit groups over its 50 years, and, for most of those years, Vi acted as the president of the board.

Vi and Byron have been recognized in the valley and received many awards for their contributions. Together they were very proud of receiving the town of Vail’s Trail Blazer Award, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail’s Hall of Fame status, and they were Grand Marshalls of Vail’s Fourth of July parade. Vi was recognized by the religious foundation, honored many times for her commitment to volunteering with the EVCF.

The Happy Hikers was a group of active and kind ladies from the valley who began hiking together in the late 70s. The ladies hiked 14ers, 13ers, to mountain lakes, partied during hut trips, and, most importantly, remained some of her closest friends until the last days of her incredible life.

Vi’s family would like to thank all of her great friends who visited her this summer and sat on her porch overlooking the Gore Range, talking about the good ol’ days with her. This time proved to be a warm and beautiful tribute to her life with the folks who shared the great experiences and friendship with her.

Vi is survived by her son, Mike Brown, his wife, Jennifer Brown, and their daughter, Madeleine Brown. Vi is also survived by her daughter, Cindy Crawford, her husband, Rob Crawford, and their sons, John Crawford and Byron Crawford.

A Celebration of Life will be held at the Donovan Pavilion on Wednesday, Nov. 1, at 2:30 p.m. As Vi was one to give so much to the community, the family would like consideration in giving to the nonprofit of your own choosing in her memory.