DOYLE BROWN SR.

SIKESTON -- Doyle Rhea Brown Sr., 86, of Sikeston died Wednesday, Dec. 1, 1999, at Missouri Delta Medical Center.

He was born April 3, 1913, in Fulton, Miss., son of James Milton and Rosa Lee Grady Brown. He and Judy Moore were married May 17, 1930. She died Feb. 11, 1990. He later married Ann Strickland May 15, 1991, in Sikeston.

Brown attended Mississippi State University and played on the freshman varsity football team.

He farmed and then was a civilian flight instructor for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He was involved with the Manhattan Project in the development of the atomic bomb at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., facility. He later was plant superintendent at the Union Carbide Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky., retiring in 1975.

Brown was a longtime member of Essex United Methodist Church.

Survivors include his wife; a son, Doyle Brown Jr. of Raleigh, N.C.; three stepsons, Dale Strickland of Senatobia, Miss., Howard Strickland of Eclectic, Ala., Charles Strickland of Oklahoma City, Okla.; a stepdaughter, Mary Mitchell of Southaven, Miss.; two grandchildren; 11 stepgrandchildren; and 17 great-stepgrandchildren.

He was preceded in death by an infant son, a brother and three sisters.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church, with Dr. Jim Davis and the Rev. Sandra Schaller officiating.

Friends may call at the church Saturday from 10 a.m. until service time.

Nunnelee Funeral Chapel is in charge of arrangements.