Former Sitkan
Dee Brower
Dies in Oregon
Former Sitka resident Irene Luella “Dee” Brower died Oct. 26, 2015, in Lincoln City, Ore., and friends here plan a gathering in her honor this summer.
“We will miss her smiling face,” friends here said.
Dee was born on the Dencker farm in Park River, N.D., in May 1940, the daughter of Laurence and Irene Grahn. The family lived for awhile in Black Duck, N.D., then moved to Portland, Ore., settling in the Springdale and Corbett area.
Dee graduated from Corbett High School in 1959, and moved to Oxnard, Calif., where she met and married David L. Brower. They moved back to Oregon and settled in Rose Lodge. She ran the Otis Cafe for about eight years in the 1970s. She loved her friends and customers there, and enjoyed their company.
She met Don Wells at Rose Lodge, and moved with him to Sitka. They fished on the F/V Saratoga, and started Wells Fishing Supply business.
Along with helping run the business, Dee became famous for her cooking at the Nugget Restaurant. Airline pilots would come in for a bowl of Dee’s famous chili and cornbread, and pie to go.
She left Sitka in 2012, and returned to Rose Lodge. She was living in Lincoln City at the time of her death.
Dee was preceded in death by her sister Beverly Diana Duley, her brother David Allen Grahn, and her grandson, Michael Alan Sorensen, whom she sorely missed.
She is survived by her four children and their families, Annette Dickersen (Larry), Cathe Sorensen, David Wayne Brower and Samantha Pynch (Rob); nine grandchildren; 11 honorary grandchildren in the Wells family; and at least nine great-grandchildren.
She was very proud of all her children, and loved them dearly – she thought of her children every day, and would want them to know that, her family said.
She also is survived by her siblings and their families, Helen M. Beatty (Don), Larry M. Grahn (Marcia), Susan K. Pompel (Bill), and Cathy L. Luper (Jim).
