Was lifted up on Eagles Wings on Saturday morning, April 21, 2018. Born Elizabeth Anna Multhaupt on December 8, 1914, in Kalamazoo, MI, the daughter of Frederick and Elizabeth (Banziger) Multhaupt. Her early education was in Oshtemo, then continuing on to graduate from the Kalamazoo Central High School class of 1931.
Anna attended the Oshtemo Methodist Church, where she met a young violinist named Ralph David Brown, and they eventually married. Surviving are six loving children: Nancy (Otto) Decker, Vicksburg; Patricia (Paul) Weber, Kalamazoo; Ralph David, Jr. (Wendy) Brown, Bay City; Elizabeth (William) Bushouse, Helen (David) Horn, and John (Laurie) Brown, all of Kalamazoo; 19 grandchildren, several great and great-great grandchildren, sister, Wilma Cooper, Kalamazoo, many nieces, nephews and cousins, as well as many relatives in Germany and Switzerland.
She was preceded in death by her husband Ralph, son Robert, her parents; brother Arthur Multhaupt, sisters Cora Miller, Emilie Smith, and Mary Barnes, three grandchildren, Sara Brown, Paul Decker, and Diane (Bushouse) Evans.
They settled in Vicksburg in 1941 and made a home there for 77 years.
Anna always wanted to be a nurse; she fulfilled that dream by being one of the founding members of the Vicksburg Ambulance Service (along with her husband, Ralph and several other community members). She was an EMT and loved every minute of it until she retired at the age of 76.
An excellent seamstress, she was always sewing and repairing clothes for others…however, her greatest love was gardening, both vegetables and flowers, sharing her bounty with family and friends and spending many, many hours in the garden.
She liked to travel and was always ready to go. Anna was greatly loved by her family and always there to encourage them in whatever they were doing.
Anna was very patriotic and always flew the American flag, even having one attached to her car. She loved parades; she served on the Village Council, was a member of the Scotts Elmwood Chapter 88 of the Pythian Sisters (serving as Grand Chief of the State of Michigan in 1972-73.
In 1976, as part of the Bi-Centennial celebration, she was chosen as one of 150 outstanding women of Michigan.
At the age of 100, she was recognized by the South County ambulance service by the naming of the classroom in her honor.