Danese Pryor "Dee" Brown

Danese Pryor "Dee" Brown, former Columbia businesswoman and resident of Greens Mill Road, died Sunday, June 12, 2011 at Grace Health Care in Cordova. Graveside services will be conducted Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. at Rose Hill Cemetery with Rev. Bob Adair and her family officiating. The family will visit with friends at graveside. Notes of sympathy may be sent to www.oakesandnichols.com. Oakes & Nichols Funeral Directors are assisting the family with arrangements. The Giles County native was the daughter of the late Aaron Lindsey Pryor and Ethel Olena McGriff Pryor. Following his service in World War II, she married Joseph Marion "Jody" Brown. For over thirty years, Mr. Brown owned and operated Brown's Body Shop with Mrs. Brown as office manager and bookkeeper. After his death in 1979, she continued operating the business until it changed ownership in 1980. In 1998, she moved to Mississippi to live with her daughter and for the past 11 years she and Sandra have made their home in Memphis. Mrs. Brown was a long-time former member of First Baptist Church in Columbia. A most wonderful, loving Mother and grandmother who never failed to put her family first, she is survived by her daughter, Sandra Brown Atkinson of Memphis; son-in-law, William Edward Atkinson; granddaughter, Britton Pressnell Davis (William Gregory) Watson of Florence, Alabama; grandsons, Joseph Clark (Lesley Tidwell) Atkinson of Monroe, Louisiana, William Powell Atkinson of Oxford, Mississippi, and Benjamin Brown (Marisa Campbell) Atkinson of Pickens, Mississippi; great-grandchildren, Winfred Joseph Watson, Austin Hall Watson, Lotti Pryor Watson, Eliza Katherine Atkinson, Clark Allen (Cal) Atkinson, Campbell Brown Atkinson, Claiborne Fletcher Atkinson, Robert Ford Atkinson, and Jackson Edward Atkinson; and a sister, Neita Peden of Centerville. She was preceded in death by sisters, Lula Curtis, Helen Scribner, and Edith Scribner; brothers, Willie Pryor, Clyde Pryor, W. L. Pryor, Eugene Pryor, and Henry Pryor. Pallbearers include Clark Atkinson, Will Atkinson, Ben Atkinson, Bill Atkinson, Win Watson, and Greg Watson.