Dena Marie Brown was born October,1955 in Colville, WA to Robert (Bob) H.  and Lila M. Ames. Bob and Lila had two daughters – Irene then Dena 2 years later.   The girls' biological father passed away when the girls were 6 and 4 years old. After Bob's death and 2 years later, Lila married John E Middleton of Ione, and he adopted Lila's two young daughters.  At the legal adoption ceremony in the judge's chambers at the Pend Oreille County Courthouse in Newport, the judge asked both Irene and Dena if they'd like to have John as their father and course the girls said yes. After the ceremony, Lila and John took the girls to Canada for the day so they could celebrate with a great picnic. Dena seemed a little quiet so dad asked Dena what might be bothering her. Dena just said, "where was the jury?"  (She'd been watching the "Perry Mason" TV shows, had seen the jury in the court proceedings, and thought that the jury would be in the room too).  We all laughed about that for years.

Dena passed away peacefully at her home in Ione on June 4, 2026. She leaves sons Roger, Ronnie (Krista Whalen) Brown of Ione, Robert "Robbie" (Anna) of Metaline Falls;  10 Grandchildren: Jared Berkley, Aubrey Brown (Trever), Courtney Merkley (Meric), Carson, Lincoln, and Ashton Brown, Elizabeth, Wesley, Avery, and Owen Brown.  Great-grandchildren:  Kyler and Kamryn Brown, Charlotte and Vivian Merkley; Sisters: Irene (Alan) Weiland, and Patty (Jeff) Schwab; Nephews: Morgan (Sue Smith) Rice and family, Eli (Kellie) Rice and family, Evan (Emma) Schwab and family, and Sophia (Matthew) DeAnda and family. Aunt: Donna Wuesthoff; cousins Bonnie (Mike) Pete and family, Glen (Teri) Bell and family. Preceding her in death were her parents, John and Lila Middleton, oldest son John Brown, and nephew Connor Rice.

Graveside services will be held on Monday, June 29, 2026 at 1 p.m.

At an early age, Dena and Irene lived in Colville, then relocated to Ione after Lila married John. The family eventually moved to the ranch at Tiger, and during her Senior year at Selkirk High School, Class of 1974, Dena married Roger Brown.  The newlyweds moved to Metaline Falls. Work required Roger and Dena to move around a bit, so they resided in several states over the years. During those years, the 4 boys, John, Roger, Ronnie, and Robbie were born.

Dena worked outside the home as well as being a homemaker. She worked at the Nalley's Potato Chip plant, the National Foods Egg Farm, Nintendo Games, Ione Food Court, the Mountain West Bank where she retired, as well as many other places. Dena was an active member and officer of the American Legion Auxiliary Post #144, spent many hours helping at SpecialTeez, just started participating with the Northern Corner Quilters Guild, and although she wasn't a member of the NPOV Lions Club, she pitched in behind the scenes with the annual Down River Days Cowboy Breakfasts.

Dena was always doing something. She had to be moving.  You might find her working out in her shop creating cool things like the patio benches she made from wood bed frames for Ronnie and Krista, Morgan and Sue, and Eli and Kellie. She had plans to make two more benches but didn't get the chance.  Her other hobbies were making picture frames, doing diamond dot pictures and giving them away as gifts, sewing blankets for her family and new baby blankets for new arrivals, decorating her home, outbuildings with solar lighting and yard art. A couple of her favorite things to do was to drive Ronnie's zero turn mower and mowed not just her lawn but her sister Irene's too. The two sisters spent a lot of together time "double teaming" lawns on their machines.  Another of Dena's favorite pastimes was to drive her Polaris Ranger which she was extremely proud of. She participated in many community poker runs over the years and last year, she, Irene, Morgan and Sue, Eli and Kellie, Tony and Angie Chopot spent a 4-day weekend in Avery Idaho camping and riding their sxs's with hundreds of others at the River to Rails Jamboree event there.She loved to watch her grandsons Carson, Wesley, Lincoln and Ashton, and nephew Kysen play basketball and baseball and would attend nearly every game – even though it might mean having to fit in two games in two places on the same day. To her, it was important. Dena loved to travel and was blessed to be able to cruise to Alaska and Costa Rica. She visited Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Hawaii, and Maryland to name a few. She had spent the past 2 summers visiting and helping her dear friends in Alaska at their gold mine and had packed the items she'd need to spend 3 months up there this summer. She was really looking forward to getting "back to camp" and was due to fly up in late May.   However, she ended up having serious emergency surgery instead, then advanced care for several weeks and the trip to Alaska was canceled.

Dena deeply loved her family, her sisters and their families, her Aunt Donna and her families, and all her friends.   She will be deeply missed by so many.In lieu of flowers or donations to any specific organization, if anyone would care to donate to the charities or organizations of their choice, please do so.