Jan Stuart (Mercer) Brown

Jan Stuart Mercer Brown died Friday afternoon, July 6, in McDowell, Virginia, at the home she shared with her son and daughter-in-law Cotten and Caryn Brown. She was 88.

Jan was born on April 19, 1936, to Howell P. Mercer and Mary Elizabeth Stuart Mercer in Tampa, Florida, and attended Tampa public schools. As a student at Plant High School, she met Robin Cotten Brown, whom she later married. Jan graduated from Newcomb College of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana and the couple were married in 1957. She ended her graduate studies in 1959 when her first child was born and gave birth to two additional children while Robin completed his medical training in New Orleans and Chicago, Illinois. The couple moved to Fort Myers, Florida in 1964, where their fourth child was born.

In addition to raising a family, Jan was active in many facets of her community. She was a co-founder, along with two friends, Ann Smoot and Lauranne McCraw, of the Junior Welfare League of Fort Myers, now a chapter of the Junior League. An avid environmentalist, she worked tirelessly to preserve Florida’s natural habitat, both through legal advocacy and by supporting efforts to conserve wild spaces. She was instrumental in the founding of the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium of Fort Myers.

Jan was an active supporter of the fine arts and performing arts in Fort Myers. In addition to serving on the board of the New Arts Festival, she was a donor and patron of the Davis Arts Center and personally supported many local artists in the community. In her work to support the historic cultures of Florida, she also served on the Florida Humanities Council. Through the years, she offered hospitality to exchange students from around the world, performing artists, and faculty and graduate student archaeologists and paleontologists from the Florida Museum of Natural History. She advocated for archaeological funding at the state level and helped create a model of community archaeology that has been broadly replicated elsewhere.

Jan had many hobbies. In her younger years she was an accomplished pianist and equestrian and had a lifelong devotion to animals and their well-being. She enjoyed painting, crafts of all sorts, writing, and poetry. She contributed free-lance articles to magazines and edited several books, including those written by her husband.

Jan and Robin moved to their family retreat in McDowell, VA in 2012, where she focused on another hobby, horticulture, exploring the local habitat and discovering new favorites. These activities continued after Robin’s death in 2019, and she had several planting projects underway when she died.

Survivors include her daughter Deirdre Mendez (Michael Kuhn) of Austin, TX; three sons, Robin Cotten Brown, Jr. (Caryn), of McDowell, VA; Louis Stuart Brown (Stacey) of Fort Myers, FL; Stephen Tulane Brown (Katherine) of Tampa. FL; one sister-in-law, Susanne Brown Conaty (Donald) of Tampa, FL, and a niece, Kelley Cleckler Maierhofer (Justin) of Knoxville, TN. She leaves behind eight granddaughters Claire Mendez Bohne (John), Austin, TX; Emily Marie Brown (Haden Macbeth), Tallahassee, FL; Frances Erin Wood (Cooper), Jacksonville, FL; Elizabeth and Robin Layne Brown, McDowell, VA; Sarah, Margaret and Lillian Brown, Fort Myers. Jan is also survived by great-grandchildren Robin Clyde Macbeth, Kay Larue Macbeth, and Poppy Keala Bohne.

A committal service was held in the Bhalgaire Farm family Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be sent to the Highland County Humane Society, P.O. Box 458, Monterey, Va. 24465; Highland County Historical Society, P.O. Box 63, McDowell Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 66, McDowell, Va. 24458; or The Randell Research Center, 13810 Waterfront Drive, Pineland, Florida 33945, RRC@FloridaMuseum.ufl.edu.