Mieko Kosuge Brown

Mieko Kosuge Brown, age 79, of Oak Ridge, passed away Friday, Oct. 5, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

She was born March 31, 1933, in Mito City, Japan, to Gisubro and Kiko Kosuge, both now deceased.

She was the third child of seven children, and she was a member of Calvary Baptist Church. She was a chemical operator at Y-12, retiring in 2010 at the age of 77, and she received an award for 35 years of service without a sick day. She was a member of the Japanese Dance Club of Oak Ridge. She loved to knit and sew and was a fashion designer, designing and making most of her clothes.

She loved to read, especially Japanese books and loved traveling. In the 1950s, she went to visit here grandmother in Sendai, and met a GI, Ulys Grant. She fell in love and married despite her fathers objections. They had met at a Christian Bible study, and Mieko became a Christian.

She came to America in 1954 and began a family. She had to learn English at night school and had to raise three boys by herself when Ulys became disabled.

Her family was with her during her warrior-spirited fight during her illness. Many including, doctors and nurses, felt she was overcoming her illness so it was a shock to them and us all on her passing. Mieko is and always will be a role model and centerpiece for her family.

Besides her parents, she is preceded in death by her husband Lenley A. Brown in 1990, her brother Soichiro Kosuge, and her sister Toshiko Yamada.

She is survived by three sons, Arthur Grant of Oliver Springs, John Grant and his wife Connie of Franklin, Tenn., and Micahel Grant of Atlanta; eight grandchildren, Jason, Joey, John Adam, Jenna, Mari, Matt, Kiko, and Kenji; seven great-grandchildren, Kai, Cole, Kendel, Haden, Kimeiko, Lacy, and Andrew; two brothers, Tugio Kosuge and Mitsusishi Kosuge; two sisters, Mibko and Kazue; and her children’s father, Ulys Grant.

Funeral services were held Monday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. in the chapel of Martin Oak Ridge Funeral Home with Rev. Tommy Akien officiating. Graveside services were held Tuesday, Oct. 9, at 2 p.m. at Green Acres Memory Gardens in Crossville. Her grandsons served as pallbearers.

The family received friends prior to the service Monday night from 5 to 7 p.m. at the funeral home.