BANGOR – Barbara Mills Browne, 80, an educator of speech and drama, died Sunday, Dec. 4, 2005, of Parkinson’s disease at her Bangor home. Born Aug. 19, 1925, the daughter of Annie Salisbury and Fay Benjamin Mills of Bangor and Aurora. Barbara was the wife of Justice Robert Linscott Browne, who predeceased her in 2003. Mrs. Browne met her husband of 56 years on stage playing the role of a husband and a wife in the University of Maine’s production of “Harriett.” A graduate of Bangor High School and the University of Maine, Barbara received a B.A. in theatre in 1947 and a M.A. in speech in 1948. Mrs. Browne performed in summer stock with the Camden Hills Theatre and directed stage productions for the House-in-the-Pines Junior College in Massachusetts, before returning to Bangor. In 1953, Barbara began her 32-year career at Bangor High School as a teacher and coach of speech and oral interpretation and as a director of award winning stage productions including “Alice In Wonderland” presented at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. Mrs. Browne was a past-president of the Educational Speech and Theatre Association of Maine. She lectured at the convention of the New England Speech Association, the New England Theatre Conference and the Speech Association of the Eastern States. She was a frequent judge at the Massachusetts, Maine and New England Drama festivals and had written theatre reviews for the Bangor Daily News. She performed with Julie Harris in the production of So Jewett’s “Country of the Pointed Iris” for Boston’s Public Radio Station, WGBH and in 1981 she received the first Communication Achievement Award given by the Bangor Chapter of Toastmaster’s International. On behalf of the Friends of Retarded Children, the YWCA and St. Joseph Healthcare, Mrs. Browne directed community theatre productions beginning with the “Sound of Music” in 1976, followed by “Annie Get Your Gun” in 1985, “Annie” in 1986, “Hello, Dolly” in 1988 and “Oliver” in 1991. She is survived by her daughter, Melinda Mills (Browne) Nelson; and two grandchildren, Erik Linscott Nelson and Nicolina Mills Nelson. A funeral service will be held 3 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9, at Brookings-Smith, 133 Center St., Bangor, with the Rev. Robert T. Carlson, chaplain of Husson College, officiating. The family invites relatives and friends to share conversation and refreshments at the Brookings-Smith Family Center, 163 Center St., immediately following the service Friday. Interment will be in Mount Hope Cemetery, Bangor. Gifts in her memory may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Grand Central Station, P.O. Box 4777, New York, NY 10163 or 1-800-708-7644.
BARBARA MILLS BROWNE
