Mr. Burgundy
Active member
Any SF/Bay Area types here? I recall seeing these twins in downtown SF for the longest. R.I.P.
Vivian Brown, half of the twin sisters who became celebrities by going everywhere together in San Francisco in prim, matching outfits, died Wednesday night.
Brown, who was 85, died peacefully in her sleep at an assisted care facility in the city, said Barbara Farber, director of development for Jewish Family and Children's Services, a charity that helped support Brown and her sister over the last year.
Brown suffered from Alzheimer's disease, her twin, Marian Brown, told The Chronicle in August, when the pair were facing their first extended time apart in decades. Vivian Brown fell in July and was admitted into doctors' care, where she remained until her death.
Marian Brown is mourning the loss of her sister, Farber said Friday.
"She's as you would expect - it is a very sad time for her," Farber said. "It is even more difficult for her because she's a twin and this was someone she's been close to all these years."
Vivian Brown was the older of the twins, by eight minutes. When they arrived from Michigan more than 40 years ago, she was a legal secretary at an insurance agency, and Marian worked as a bank auditor.
The sisters, each 5-foot-1 and a shade under 100 pounds, liked to walk the city together in matching outfits. They were featured in 25 television advertisements over the years, for companies including The Chronicle, Reebok, IBM, Virgin Atlantic Airlines and Dell Computer.
But the regular advertising income dried up in recent years, leaving Marian Brown dependent on Social Security while her sister was in the hospital.
Marian said she wanted to protect her savings so the two could be buried next to one another.
"People know us as the San Francisco twins," she said in August, "and we want to finish up our lives here in San Francisco."
Will Kane is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: [email protected]
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/One-of-S-F-s-twin-Brown-sisters-dies-4186519.php#ixzz2Hh6wvDI9
Stay Classy!
Vivian Brown, half of the twin sisters who became celebrities by going everywhere together in San Francisco in prim, matching outfits, died Wednesday night.
Brown, who was 85, died peacefully in her sleep at an assisted care facility in the city, said Barbara Farber, director of development for Jewish Family and Children's Services, a charity that helped support Brown and her sister over the last year.
Brown suffered from Alzheimer's disease, her twin, Marian Brown, told The Chronicle in August, when the pair were facing their first extended time apart in decades. Vivian Brown fell in July and was admitted into doctors' care, where she remained until her death.
Marian Brown is mourning the loss of her sister, Farber said Friday.
"She's as you would expect - it is a very sad time for her," Farber said. "It is even more difficult for her because she's a twin and this was someone she's been close to all these years."
Vivian Brown was the older of the twins, by eight minutes. When they arrived from Michigan more than 40 years ago, she was a legal secretary at an insurance agency, and Marian worked as a bank auditor.
The sisters, each 5-foot-1 and a shade under 100 pounds, liked to walk the city together in matching outfits. They were featured in 25 television advertisements over the years, for companies including The Chronicle, Reebok, IBM, Virgin Atlantic Airlines and Dell Computer.
But the regular advertising income dried up in recent years, leaving Marian Brown dependent on Social Security while her sister was in the hospital.
Marian said she wanted to protect her savings so the two could be buried next to one another.
"People know us as the San Francisco twins," she said in August, "and we want to finish up our lives here in San Francisco."
Will Kane is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: [email protected]
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/One-of-S-F-s-twin-Brown-sisters-dies-4186519.php#ixzz2Hh6wvDI9
Stay Classy!
