Helen “Leni” Brown

On Aug. 27, 2025, we lost the extraordinary Leni Brown, beloved by all who knew her. Leni was an unfailingly kind and encouraging mother, a fun and generous grandmother, a dedicated and loving wife, a devoted and tender daughter, and a magnet to friends of all ages who were drawn to her beauty and boundless energy. With Leni in the world, we could have no doubt that we were loved. She was, for all of us, a champion and a playmate, a friend and a confidante, a caregiver and a guiding light. Without her, we must trust in her unwavering faith in us, in the goodness of the world, and in the redeeming grace of God.

Born in 1941 in Atlanta, Georgia, Helen Emma Boynton was the youngest child born to Francis Raymond Boynton and Helen Cochrane Boynton. Leni loved everyone, but her mom was perfection in Leni’s eyes—a painter, musician, seamstress, and soft-spoken Scottish Presbyterian who shared Leni’s belief in the virtue of others. When Leni was 12, the family moved from Jacksonville to Lake Worth, where her dad owned an insurance company. By all accounts, she was a wonderful child, earning good grades, homecoming crowns, and friends who would remain dear to her for the next seven decades of her life.

About the time that she finished Palm Beach Junior College with her AA, she heard that a boy she’d known a little in high school had a death in his family. They’d been on a double date once, but not with each other. She sent him a condolence card. He called. Two hours later, she was pretty sure she needed to call off her engagement to another guy. 

Always with flawless nails, makeup, and hair, Leni had that wholesome Sandra Dee/Annette Funicello look, with the elegance of Jackie Kennedy and the giggles of Goldie Hawn. Larry didn’t have a prayer. As soon as he made his first real money as a shortstop for the Cleveland Indians in the AA league, he bought a red-and-white T-Bird convertible and an engagement ring and drove straight through from a double-header in Utah to Florida to ask Leni to marry him. She was 20. He was 21.

Leni could have been almost anything—a fashion designer, a celebrity chef, a hotelier, a queen. Lucky for us, she became a young mom and poured her considerable talents into building a loving home for her three girls, Laurie, Leslie, and Leigh. For sixteen years, Leni singlehandedly managed two moves a year back and forth from Ohio (sometimes also to Arizona for spring training) for the baseball season, and then later to Maryland (Baltimore Orioles), California (Oakland A’s), and Texas (Rangers), doing all the packing, planning, and en-route entertaining for three children. She made sure every summer included adventures to the local sites: Disney Land, the Golden Gate Bridge, Giant Redwoods, Smithsonian, crab boils on the Chesapeake, Amish farm stands, and cattle drives in Fort Worth. For every home game, all three little girls were usually dressed in matching outfits made by Leni herself.

When life as a baseball wife came to an end, she and Larry opened a small manufacturing firm, Sun Shader Hats, inspired by their passion for tennis. Leni played team tennis for years, even when working at a dentist’s office after Sun Shader was sold. Even after rotator cuff surgery. Even when she was in her late 70s. One of her first indicators of Alzheimer’s: losing track of the score. 

Because she was the inimitable Leni Brown, she did not take the looming debilitation of Alzheimer’s meekly. She did a daily crossword. She walked four miles a day. She joined a Bible group with intensive readings. She bought a piano and hired a teacher, learning to read and play Beethoven in her 70s, even as her speech began to fail her. Aphasia was the cruelest element of Alzheimer’s, robbing her of verbal expression, but she did not need words. Leni had a smile that would not quit, hands made for holding, and a warmth that spoke volumes.

Leni Brown is survived by her daughters, Laurie Brown, Leslie Brown, and Leigh Brown Perkins, who know how blessed they were to call her Mom. She was the proud grandma to nine grown grandchildren: Hunter Tillman, Kendall Tillman Hufnagel (Michael), Easton Tillman, MacCray Perkins, Benjamin Perkins, Becket Perkins, Lacey Higginson, Landon Higginson, and Layton Higginson. Also mourning her loss are her nieces, Julie Gerlach and Beth Boynton, and nephew Cal Boynton, and many friends from PEO, neighbors in Wellington, and classmates from Lake Worth High School.

Leni was preceded in death by her son-in-law, James Perkins, her brother John Boynton, her sister Robert Waltz Seaquist, and niece Karen Waltz. She was also preceded in death by her husband of 62 years, Larry Brown.

The lives of Leni and Larry will be celebrated in a shared memorial on Saturday, Sept. 6, at 10:30 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church of North Palm Beach, with the Rev. Dr. Ron Hilliard officiating.

Both Leni and Larry were provided exemplary care from Hospice of the Treasure Coast. Donations may be made in their names.