Sister Wives star Kody Brown’s father Winn dies in Wyoming at 78

It has been a rough few months for the Brown family from the TLC reality series Sister Wives as the show’s patriarch Kody Brown lost his brother Curtis Brown in a motorcycle accident back in June and earlier this week Kody’s father, Winn Brown, passed away at his home in Lovell, Wyoming the age of 78.

Fans of Sister Wives may remember Winn from the episode 4 of Season 2 titled “Free Range Browns” in which the Brown family traveled to Wyoming to visit the family home, a vast 1,740-acre estate known as the Double Dollar Ranch that has been in the Brown family for five generations. Here’s a photo from the episode wrangled up by the folks at Sister Wives Blog:

The photo with Kody’s wife Janelle is especially significant because Janelle’s mother Sheryl wound up marrying Kody’s father Winn.

The Sister Wives Blog also managed to find this gem, a photo of Kody from what I assume is his high school graduation with his father Winn and a woman who I am assuming is Kody’s mother, Genielle Brown:

Kody Brown hasn’t talked about his father’s death online, although his wives Janelle and Meri have:

Thoughts today of Kody's dad, an old cowboy goin' home, ridin' off into the sunset, & exploring the green pastures on the other side.

— Meri Brown (@MeriBrown1) August 28, 2013

This past week we lost Kody's father. Here is a picture by a granddaughter of the of the 2 now missing from us. pic.twitter.com/lg1uMDR4xe

— Janelle Brown (@JanelleBrown117) August 28, 2013

UPDATE – Kody has since posted another great photo of Winnn and Curtis:

A favorite picture of the late Curtis Taylor Brown & our late father William Winn Brown. Missing them now. pic.twitter.com/pdDw8caori

— Kody Brown (@realkodybrown) August 31, 2013

And Kody also addressed Winn’s passing by referencing this article:

http://t.co/2wDEMzLy7K Thank you Starcasm for your kind article about my dad. May he rest in peace.

— Kody Brown (@realkodybrown) August 31, 2013

According to his obituary (included in its entirety below), graveside services for Winn Brown were held Wednesday morning, August 28, 2013 – which would have been Winn’s 79th birthday. He lays at rest in the Penrose Cemetery.

Here is Winn Brown’s full obituary from Haskell Funeral Home in Lovell, Wyoming:

Beloved husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, son, and friend, William Winn Brown, 78, passed away on Saturday afternoon, August 24, 2013, at the family ranch southwest of Lovell, Wyoming. “Winn” was born on August 28, 1934, in the old two-story hospital in Lovell; the first child of Alma Taylor Brown and Edith Stella Winn Brown.

Winn attended Lovell schools and graduated from Lovell High School in 1952, then spent two years in the U.S. Army Rangers, training as a paratrooper in Panama. While there he managed to survive a parachute malfunction adventure, which he forever claimed took ½ inch off his six foot height.

Winn served in the Southern States Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from 1956 through February of 1958. He attended Northwest College for awhile, doing rodeo events on the side, until he met and married his sweetheart, Genielle Tew. Winn then transferred to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he graduated in Agricultural Economics in 1963.

After BYU, Genielle and Winn established their home in Byron, Wyoming. They moved to the family ranch property southwest of Lovell in 1970, where the family still lives.

Winn worked several years for Cache Valley Breeders and Montana Breeders, teaching cattle management to ranchers all over Montana and Wyoming. At the same time, he worked his father’s farm and eventually combined it with his Uncle Elgen’s farm, to realize the original boundaries as homesteaded by Ebenezer Brown in 1902. Over the years Winn added other neighboring parcels to achieve his life goal of establishing a family ranch property.

Winn’s life was centered around the principles of the restored gospel. He will be remembered for his many stories of his missionary experiences, family and church history events, his ranching adventures, and of his early rodeo and hunting days. Ask any of his ten children about “when Dad roped the elk”, or the raft trip down the Big Horn Canyon, or “The Mysterious Disappearance of the Military MP Jeep”. He loved Robert Service poems and could recite whole stanzas. Winn was a true cowboy, who never met a stranger.

Winn was preceded in death by his parents, his younger brother Lionel Dow Brown (Bud), and his son Curtis Taylor Brown (d. June 17, 2013).

He is survived by his siblings Joseph Guernsey (Gurn) Brown, Persis Ann Skinner, Val Young Brown, Alma Taylor Brown Jr. (Buster), and Emma Louise Christoffersen; his wives Genielle, Bobbie and Sheryl, and nine children; Cindy Hansen, Scott Allan Brown, Lorilyn Beck, Kody Winn Brown, Christine King, Tricia Lee Garner, Travis Merrill Brown, Leah Nicole Lundquist, and William Michael Brown.

Graveside services were held Wednesday morning, August 28, 2013 – which would have been Winn’s 79th birthday. He lays at rest in the Penrose Cemetery.