Ossie Brown - Civic Leadership, Death and Legacy

Civic Leadership, Death and Legacy

He was a member of the advisory board of the Salvation Army and the executive committee of the Boy Scouts of America Istrouma Council. He also worked in the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. He hosted the Lions Club Crippled Children's Telethon. He supported the Louisiana Baptist Children's Home orphanage in Monroe. Since 1964, Brown had been an active member of the Florida Boulevard Baptist Church, where he taught the Fellowship Bible class. Earlier, he had been music director of various churches.

After he left the office of district attorney, Brown resumed his law practice until he retired in the year 2000 from the still existing offices of Ossie Brown at 123 St. Ferdinand Street in Baton Rouge. One of the partners is Brown's son, Dana Brent Brown.

Services were held on August 30, 2008, at the Florida Avenue Baptist Church. Entombment was in the Green Oaks Memorial Park Mausoleum. Brown was survived by his wife of forty-eight years, the former Faye Underwood (born November 5, 1931); two sons, Dana Brown (born July 10, 1962) and wife Natalie (born November 29, 1970) and Kirk Brown of Napa, California; daughter, Kelli B. Leon (born December 24, 1968) of Baton Rouge; four grandchildren, Brycyn Brown, Max Brown, and Alexa and Amber Leon; and four great-grandchildren.

Current EBR District Attorney Hillar Moore, III, told the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate that Brown "stood for certain principles and took positions that were always firm. He was always for the victims of crime." Moore said that when he worked for Brown as an investigator while he was still in college and that the DA "adopted me as a son." Moore, who supported Brown in the 1984 election, remained an investigator under DA Bryan Bush despite their partisan difference.