Kimberly Brown

Sun Prairie – Kim Brown age 71, a loving wife, mother, grandmother, aunt and sister passed away peacefully from metastatic breast cancer on Mother’s Day, May 10, 2026, while receiving Hospice care from Agrace at home and in the loving embrace of family and friends.  She was born in Madison, WI to Arnold (Andy) Sveum Andersen and Barbara Ann (Kopp) and was a 1973 graduate of Madison East before receiving her Surgical Tech degree from MATC.

She married Joseph (Joe) Brown on October 18, 1985, in Madison and in July of 1987 they relocated their growing family to Sun Prairie where they deeply integrated themselves into the community through Little League, school, sports, and social activities and developed a close group of special friends who were very supportive of Kim and her family in her illness. 

Kim was a stellar surgical tech for forty years at Meriter Hospital and had a core group of associates and friends who met regularly for luncheons after her retirement (2019).  An accomplished cook and baker she would always bring homemade cookies for everyone to these luncheons for dessert. A heart of gold, Kim would hear of a friend’s pending surgery at her facility and track down the schedule for the time and dressed in her scrubs, would lower her mask, and utter encouraging words to them as she walked them to the OR. 

Her family was her life, and she always put them first. She nurtured them through life and nursed them through their sicknesses. Not a sports fan, she watched her three children play hundreds of games without complaints. Often quietly knitting or crocheting during game 6 of the weekend while they were playing for the championship. She worked tirelessly volunteering at the concession stand with her friends who humorously called themselves the “wienie queens” as they sold the hot dogs. Kim saw Packer and Badger games as an opportunity to go shopping as the stores were not busy.

A gardener extraordinaire, Kim was happiest working outdoors with dirt under her fingernails tending her numerous plants and flowers.  She volunteered and spent countless hours at the Boys & Girls Club where she also created and taught a gardening class for youngsters these past few years. 

She worked side by side with her husband Joe and brother-in-law Larry and others on countless home and cottage improvement projects and more than held her own and loved every minute of it. Her daddy wanted a boy for his second child but was happy to have another daughter and he taught Kim everything from fishing to gardening to handyman tasks. She raked leaves, dug up gardens, weed whacked, stacked split wood and painted interiors and stained decks (and helped build them) and refurnished furniture and fixed toys for her kids and grandkids all while cooking and housekeeping and caretaking for her family, joyously.

Kim’s home was always open to family and friends. She cooked Sunday and holiday family meals for aging parents, relatives, children, grandkids and friends of her children who had no place to go at times.  Kim crocheted and knitted and gifted dozens of baby blankets to newborns of friends, coworkers, and family members.

Her favorite activity was spending time at the family cottage (Wobegon) in rural Marquette County on Tagatz Creek and Pleasant Pond with family and friends. For fifteen years Kim oversaw the Annual Brown Family Reunion there and watched nieces and nephews grow up and catch frogs, fish, swim and kayak there. Saturday night at Wobegon was date night and Joe and Kim would sit around the campfire at the Pondhouse, kayak on the pond and creek and listen to Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keilor and sip red wine. Kim loved nature and took hundreds of beautiful pictures of wildlife, flora, and sunsets.

Kim was preceded in death by her parents, brothers-in-law Dale Brown and Daniel Dunn and sister-in-law Karen Peterson. She is survived by her devoted husband of forty years Joe Brown, her children Kyle Hunter (Liz), Jake Brown (Brittany) and Andee Brown and her grandchildren Evelyn Hunter, Stella Brown and Aaron Brown and her granddogs Huck and Finn, sister Brooke Pare (Ed), brother-in-law Kevin Brown (Ginny Martin), sisters-in-law Theresa Klubertanz (Larry), Kris Brown, Rhonda Dunn, Carol Pedretti (Tom) and Brenda Mueller (Tony) and numerous nieces and nephews.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, May 16, 2026, from 3 PM to 7 PM with memories and tributes at 4:30 PM at the Boys & Girls Club 232 Windsor St., Sun Prairie WI.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County (bgcdc.org/donate) in memory of Kim and her volunteer work with the Club.

To view this obituary and leave a memory, please visit: www.ryanfuneralservice.com.

Ryan Funeral Home & Cremation Services

2418 N Sherman Ave

608-249-8257