ATMORE – Ethel Brown Strength passed away at her home in Atmore on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. She was 92 years old. She was born on March 5, 1921, in Mineola in Monroe County, Ala. and was a life-long resident of Alabama except for a brief period when she lived near Fort Bragg, N.C. during World War II. She was the ninth child born to John Wesley and Susie Lucinda (Chaudron) Brown.

During her marriage to her first husband, Fred N. Strength, which ended in divorce, three daughters were born to them: Bernice, Barbara Sue, and Montez.

Mrs. Strength first moved to Atmore with her daughter, Barbara Sue, during World War II. Her first employer in Atmore was Bristow’s Drug Store in 1946. Later, she was employed for many years by Goodwill Manufacturing Company (the Ribbon Mill) on North Main Street, working there from about the time it first opened until it closed.  After several years at Vanity Fair Mills, she retired from employment.

She was an accomplished seamstress, making many of her own clothing and for others as well.  Cooking delicious meals, cakes and other desserts for her family and friends was of great enjoyment to her.  She loved working in her yard planting many lovely flowers and also a vegetable garden for many years, and then canning and freezing the produce.

Since the spring of 1956, when she was lead to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Rev. and Mrs. Cameron E. Bryant, she was a faithful member of Brooks Memorial Baptist Church.

Her parents; two daughters, Bernice and Montez, who died in infancy; all of her brothers and sisters and their spouses, Dewey Brown (Rether), Della Whatley (Ira), Clarence Brown (Ruth), Ike Brown (Ethel), Walter Brown (Opal), Ernest Brown (Edna), Agnes Johnson (Ernest), and Fred Brown (Gladys) and her husbands, John Henry Pugh and Leon Elijah Strength preceded her in death.

She is survived by her daughter, Barbara Sue Strength Post, who resides with her husband, J. Wayne Post, in Helena, Mont.; two grandsons, Mitchell W. Post, Ignacio, Colo., and J. Alan Post and his wife, Sarah, and their three children, Brandon, Elizabeth and Alexandria; and two great-great-grandchildren, all of Billings, Mont., granddaughter, Shannon Leigh Post, who resides in Talkeetna, Alaska; her stepdaughter, Anne Strength McGuigan (James) and her daughter, Jennifer Allen Blanton (John) and their two sons, Aaron and Kyle of Atmore; and her stepson, Tim Strength, of Pace, Fla. and his daughter, Alicia Strength; a great-nephew, Ben Brown and nieces, Susie Coker and Jean Strength, with whom she was particularly close, also survive her along with many other nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. today, Saturday, June 22, 2013, at Brooks Memorial Baptist Church, 904 McRae Street, Atmore. Visitation will be held from noon until the service begins. Burial will follow at Oak Hill Cemetery in the Strength family plot.

Honorary Pallbearers will be the members of her Ladies’ Sunday School Class of Brooks Memorial Baptist Church. Active Pallbearers are Alan Post, Edward Brown, Hubert Brown, Vernon Brown, Tim Strength and Aubrey Till.

Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home is in charge of funeral arrangements.