43
Golf buddies memorialize LaRue Brown, 84-year-old murder victim
By Sarah Lehr
VIENNA
LaRue Brown, 84, was excited about trading in her old car for a Cadillac SUV.
She promised she would give rides to her friend Lois Greathouse, who was recovering after surgery. Such generosity was typical of Brown, according to those who knew her.
“She was so proud of that car,” Greathouse said, before adding, with a quaver in her voice, “Of course, she never got to give me that ride.”
Brown was found dead in her Church Hill-Hubbard Road home in the early morning of April 24. The Trumbull County Coroner’s office ruled the death a homicide, resulting from blunt traumatic injuries and an incision to the neck.
A Trumbull County grand jury indicted 33-year-old Sean Clemens, her neighbor from across the street, on charges including aggravated murder. The case, which could result in the death penalty, is set for a jury trial next year. Attorneys representing Clemens could not be reached to comment Friday.
Prosecutors allege that Clemens beat Brown with a shovel, cut her with a knife and loaded her electronics into her Cadillac SUV. Police later found the burned-out SUV – the one that Brown had been so eager to purchase – in the woods near Church Hill-Hubbard Road.
Brown left behind a close-knit group of friends, several of whom said they hope to be alive long enough to see justice served.
Before her death, Brown spent just about every Thursday morning golfing with a group of 10 women at Hidden Oaks Golf Course in Vienna. The women, who lately have taken to calling themselves “Women for LaRue Brown,” have placed a plaque in Brown’s memory at the first tee.
Her friends say the plaque’s location is a fitting tribute to Brown’s athleticism. She walked miles every day for groceries and other errands. Brown’s neighbors knew her as the woman who always smiled and waved.
She delighted in buying carefully selected Christmas gifts for her golf buddies. She kept busy with community service and placed American flags on the graves of veterans.
Brown thrived when socializing and wasn’t shy about asking people to speak up because she was hard of hearing. She had started checking out tapes from the library so she could learn to lip-read. Brown didn’t mind shocking people with occasional colorful language. People were often surprised, her friends said, at such a frank sense of humor from a petite, elderly woman.
Brown was born in Youngstown and graduated from Newton Falls High School in 1952. Before her retirement in 2005, she worked as a manager at the 20th Century Restaurant in Youngstown and as a saleswoman for Jewelry Connection in Warren.
Brown is survived by three daughters, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Her husband of 57 years, Donald Brown, died in 2010.
After Brown’s husband died, her friend Joanne Cutter persuaded her to return to golfing. Brown and Cutter met more than five decades ago, when their children were trick-or-treating at Hubbard Estates.
“To meet her was to be her friend, immediately,” Cutter said. “It’s pretty hard to understand why someone would want to hurt her.”