Alice Browne Obituary

Alice Pauline (Sweeney) Browne

Aug 14, 2022

Sandusky

Alice Pauline (Sweeney) Browne passed away Sunday, Aug. 14, 2022, two months after her 104th birthday celebration which was June 26, 2022.

Pauline was born in Topeka, Kansas, to Alice Bertha (Crabb) and James Paul Sweeney, the oldest of two daughters.

Her younger sister was Betty Jo. Her parents and her sister preceded her in death.

Pauline was very proud of her 61 years of sobriety and membership in Alcoholics Anonymous. She loved to tell her inspirational story wherever people gathered for an AA meeting. Her story took her from lectures about the evils of drinking, by the grandmother she lived with as a young woman, to Juneau, capitol of the then new state of Alaska where she moved with her oldest son and daughter. She had felt it necessary to remove her son from the toxic social and legal environment for kids with cars in northern Ohio at that time. She moved on to living in Las Vegas, Nevada, St. Petersburg, Florida, and back to Middle Bass, Ohio, where she ultimately made it to her first AA meeting and where she felt she was "touched by God" as he removed from her all desire to drink. The date was June 26, 1961. From that date, until the date of her death, she never again touched a drop of alcohol.

Pauline had so many things she wanted to accomplish in her life. She became a pilot and had many stories to tell of those times. She wanted to get her law degree so that she could help underdogs who were unjustly convicted of crimes because of poor legal representation. To that end she went to University of Miami nights while working full-time. She graduated from UM and then attended and graduated from law school in Atlanta, Georgia. She was not able to pass the bar exam, but she never lost her love of the law.

While living in Miami, Florida, she took up the sport of scuba diving. She loved to tell the story of a diving trip where she was being advanced on by a large shark and a dolphin came to her rescue and pushed the shark away from her. She loved to write poetry and had many poems published. She worked for many years to write a great novel. She researched and played around with different ideas, but never quite achieved the one novel she felt she had within herself. She loved the beauty of nature and studied painting and photography. Every year, she gifted her family with her original paintings or framed photographs. She would journey to beautiful gardens and festivals to take pictures. She worked in a law office until she was 85 years old in order to have the money to travel to Europe every year. Some of her trips included Holland in the spring to photograph the tulips blooming and she traveled to Giverny, France, to photograph Monet's beautiful gardens. She studied the life, painting style, and historical importance of Vincent Van Gogh. Her love for his art knew no bounds.

Pauline loved her family above all else. She took her children and then her grandchildren on trips to instill in them her love of all things beautiful.

Pauline was an inspiration to and is survived by her three sons Jerry Smetzer of Alaska, Raymond Smetzer of Ohio, and Jonathan Smetzer of Ohio; daughter, Patricia Smetzer of Florida; seven grandchildren, Megan Smetzer of Vancouver, British Columbia, Nick Smetzer of Colorado, Gabe Smetzer of Vancouver, British Columbia, Jonathan D. Smetzer of Ohio, Jennifer Gibson of Florida, John Gibson Jr. of Florida, and Julie Padgett of Florida; and eight great-grandchildren, Lily Camille Smetzer of Vancouver, British Columbia, Amelia Marie and Sloane Anna Smetzer of Broomfield, Colorado, Luca, Emil Huckleberry, and Mira Smetzer of Vancouver, British Columbia, Jackson Kaleb Gibson of Florida, and Tyler Scott Padgett of Florida; and many other loved family members.