On Friday, July 18, 2025, Susan Ray Brown passed away, surrounded by her children and family, in her home in Mount Morris, after bravely navigating a challenging illness.
Love—-profound, selfless, aching loving kindness—-was the driving force and rule of action in Susan’s life. She was loyal as a mother, family member, friend, and neighbor to so many folks down through the years, especially to her husband, Lee; children, Sam and Annie; and to all children. So many people have become successful and joyful because of Susan’s selfless devotion and attentive, loving care. She deeply felt and lived out the insight expressed by Erich Fromm, which she learned from her mother: “Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.”
Susan was born October 3, 1953, near Romney and Fort Ashby, where she lived in her earliest years. She was later raised in Ronceverte (Greenbrier County) by her mother, Phyllis “Samme” Brown, and by her extended family there including her grandmother, Katheryn Rippetoe Erwin; and “Aunt Ann” Erwin Fisk.
When her mother passed prematurely, Susan naturally took to mothering her sisters, Liz, Martha, and Melissa (“Sissy”), a role she deeply cherished throughout life. From these experiences, Susan simply knew that motherly love—-truly unconditional love between people, especially towards children—-was the most important thing this world needs.
Susan spent years living among, accompanying, singing with, and serving her beloved people of West Virginia and surroundings. She farmed, foraged, and sang with many dear friends on Wolf Run in Calhoun County. She tended to precious and needy children and the mentally infirm at Weston State Hospital, where she earned the nickname “Sunshine Sue” in the ward for the criminally insane. She worked for a time at a hubcap factory, where she further developed her sense of solidarity with industrial workers and all workers across West Virginia and the world. She remained close throughout her life with nearly all of the friends that she made along the way—-because once people were touched by her genuine love, their hearts were changed and they remained affectionate and loyal to her ever after, and she always cared about them.
She moved to Morgantown in the 1970s, where she earned a B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology from West Virginia University. She found common cause with the many good souls in Monongalia County during those years, including her future husband, Lee.
Susan and Lee met through their involvement in the Monongahela Alliance for Communtiy Protection (MACP) fighting for environmental stewardship. Susan and Lee helped to co-found the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. Cornel West writes that “Justice is what love looks like in public.” This common loving impulse for repairing the world drew Susan and Lee together and helped anchor their partnership and family, sustaining them all through the years.
Susan’s spirit of love manifested in so many endeavors that were all connected to shaping the type of world she wanted to create for her children and all people. She lived much of her life in the Morgantown area and on a farm on Buckeye Road in Mount Morris, making many precious memories and friends along the way. At an early age, Susan’s grandmother taught her to make salt-rising bread, a unique bread that requires cultivating a wild bacteria for leavening. Susan travelled across Appalachia gathering recipes and stories from folks who made the bread. She eventually published a book with her dear friend, Jenny Bardwell, also helping to establish a bakery that makes the bread, teaching classes, and serving as a mentor in a folklife apprenticeship with a young salt-rising bread baker—-successfully passing down the traditional knowledge of this finicky bread with a unique aroma and flavor that serves as a connection to prior generations for so many Appalachians, and which had largely vanished before Susan’s efforts. She loved that making this bread required the baker to stay home for hours at a stretch and visit together in the kitchen while you tended to the rising.
Susan made so much music, lifting up her beautiful voice in song with many special friends along the way. She played and recorded with the band “Trillium” with Donna Weems and Lindy Moebs, performing regionally and on West Virginia Public Radio’s “Music from the Mountains” with Joe Dobbs. She recorded a beautiful album entitled “When the Moon Came Up On the Mountain Brow,” with Robert “Greg” Shaw, and also sang with Greg, Chris Haddox and Jim Truman and others in the memorable operetta “Hobo’s Homecoming” performed at Scott’s Run Settlement House. She also played in a klezmer band called the “Green Cousins” with Lee and her friends, Paul and Roz Becker.
She loved square dancing. She established a local library in Mount Morris. She volunteered with and helped to lead a wide variety of organizations and programs devoted to early childhood development and social justice throughout her life, including Happy School at the Shack in Purseglove, Parents’ Place at the Church of the Brethren, Habitat for Humanity, the social justice committee at the Tree of Life Congregation, the Community Coalition for Social Justice, several soup kitchens, band boosters, PTA, eight years of elected service on the Central Greene County School Board, and much more.
Susan is survived by her devoted and admiring husband, Lee; adoring children, Sam Brown Petsonk (Stephanie Tyree) of Charleston, and Annie Erwin (Zach) Fowler of Mount Morris; grandchildren, Leroy Erwin and Harriet Susan Fowler, and Theo “Teddy” Paul and Levi Boaz Petsonk; sisters, Martha Nally and Liz Fromm; brother, Paul Brown; and many loving nieces, nephews, in-laws, relations, friends, and neighbors.
Susan’s good spirit will remain with all of us, wherever we are, when we’re making a home- cooked meal, being kind to a child, singing familiar songs, tending to someone in need, or most of all just loving others the way Susan always has—-faithfully and freely. Susan truly embodied her transformational vision of the world: “To love and be loved is the greatest joy on earth.”
Susan’s family welcomes all who knew and loved her to join us in a celebration of her life at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 26, in the dining hall at Camp Muffly, 1477 4-H Camp Road, Morgantown.
Mourners are encouraged to send donations, in Susan’s memory, to The Shack Neighborhood House at https://the-shack.org
Condolences at www.dering-henson.com
