Brown's Candy Kitchen owner satisfied the customers

One of the perks of being pope in the Roman Catholic Church or president of the United States was to receive a box of Lucille Brown's candies.

Every pope and president since 1951 -- the year Lucille and Albert Brown established their Brown's Candy Kitchen -- has received a box of their candies, recalled Mark Keefer.

Lucille R. Brown, of Mt. Pleasant, owner of Brown's Candy Kitchen in Mt. Pleasant, died on Thursday, June 17, 2004, at Frick Hospital, Mt. Pleasant. She was 83.

"They have thank-you notes from the Vatican and also from the White House and personal notes from Pat Nixon," added Keefer, who has managed the business since Mrs. Brown assumed a less active role two years ago.

Their regulars include Steelers Coach Bill Cowher, along with candy lovers throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia. "We fill a lot of overseas orders," Keefer said.

Born and raised in Point Marion, Lucille Ross was one of two daughters in the family of Charles F. and Ora Baker Ross.

Lucille Ross received a lot of her business acumen from her father, who besides operating a hotel in Mt. Pleasant which houses the candy store, had established the Nut Shop in Scottdale, where she worked after school and during summer recess while attending the former Ramsay High School in Mt. Pleasant.

In 1939, following graduation from high school, Lucille Ross received a degree in home economics from Seton Hill College, Greensburg, and, prior to her marriage to Albert West Brown in the late 1940s, was employed as a culinary demonstrator for West Penn Power and as a home economics teacher in the Penn Township and Mt. Pleasant Area school districts.

In 1951, while Albert Brown was employed at the Irvin Works of U.S. Steel in Dravosburg, they began making candy in the kitchen of their home that Mr. Brown would take to work. "The men in the mill liked it so much that they advised him to open a candy store," Keefer said.

In the ensuing years, the Brown's kitchen workshop evolved into a major operation that today employs 14 full-time and two seasonal candy makers and uses more than 20,000 pounds of raw chocolate every year.

This past Christmas, Keefer said, they produced more than three tons of chocolate turtles and tons of chocolate-covered cherries. Before Easter, they created 200 chocolate-covered Easter eggs every day.

After her husband's death in 1984, Mrs. Brown continued to expand the business and soon after acquired a worldwide reputation.

Mark Keefer, who began working for the Browns as a youth, cutting grass and loading and unloading boxes and crates, remembered Mrs. Brown as a stern but fair employer who was always concerned about the welfare of her employees and their families.

Mark Keefer's father, the late Paul Keefer, had worked for the Browns as a candy maker, and his wife, Loretta, continues to work for the company. Loretta Keefer's daughter-in-law, Rose Keefer, has assumed the duties of candy maker.

Mrs. Brown is survived by her longtime friends and caregivers, Loretta Keefer and her son, Mark Keefer, of Mt. Pleasant; her sister-in-law, Wilhelmina Stewart, of Mt. Pleasant; and her close friends, Lucy Moore and her family, of Colorado, and Jeannette McAllister and her family, of Virginia.

She was predeceased by her sister, Ella Ross Martin, and her husband, Paul, and a sister-in-law, Kathleen Grimes.

Friends will meet today from 10 a.m. until noon at the Eugene G. Saloom Funeral Services, 730 W. Main St., Mt. Pleasant, at which time a funeral service will be held with the Rev. Richard L. Hartman of the Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church officiating.

Interment will follow in Green Ridge Memorial Park, Connellsville.