MAY 24, 1930 – OCTOBER 1, 2017
Farmer; teacher; former executive committee member of the Shorthorn Lassies Auxiliary. Born May 24, 1930; died Oct. 1, 2017, age 87.
Audrey Brown operated Glenrothes Farm near Beaverton with George, her husband of over 65 years. The couple met at high school and eventually settled in Pickering, where they both taught school.
Audrey and George began their purebred herd in the early 1960s and moved permanently to the farm in 1984. Their 2008 “Legends of the Breed” award from the Canadian Shorthorn Association recognized the couple for their herd improvement, Nancy Brown Andison, Audrey’s daughter, said in an interview.
The award also recognized her parents’ years of participation in breed association business, Brown Andison said. Audrey served for 25 years on the executive of the Shorthorn Lassies Auxiliary, supervising promotional work and chaperoning young exhibitors at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair cattle shows.
“The role of women in agriculture was changing significantly over that period. Women were getting more directly involved in the actual business side of it,” Brown Andison said. She described her mother as someone “in the forefront” of that change.
Gabi von Gans photo
Written by Jim Algie.
Originally published in the January 2018 edition of Better Farming.