Yaroslava Sofia Brown

YAROSLAVA S. BROWN STAUNTON, VA Yaroslava "Yara" Sofia (Sachno) Brown, 76, wife of Edwin Beecher Brown of Staunton, died Friday, May 16, 2014 at the Shenandoah House hospice. She was born October 15, 1937 in Wodzislaw, Poland, where her father was district veterinarian. Her father, the late Roman Sachno, was Ukranian. Her mother, the late Boena Anna (těpnkova) Sachno, was Czech. Mrs. Brown graduated from Marymount Junior College in Arlington, Va. in 1958. She earned her B.S. in Education in 1960 from the University of Virginia. In addition to her husband, she is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, Edwin Roman and Mirtha Vallini Brown of Lexington, South Carolina; a daughter, Martha Anne Russell of Crozet; grandchildren Edwin Daniel Brown, Anna Sofia Brown, Joseph Boyd Brown, Michael Roman Brown, Genevieve Sophia Russell, and Audrey Irene Russell; a brother, Roman Sachno, Jr. of Staunton; a nephew, Roman Sachno, III; and nieces Vinessa Miccio Sachno and Erika Andriana Sachno. She was preceded in death by a daughter, Katherine Jaroslava Brown. Mrs. Brown had an eventful young life. Under German occupation in Poland after 1939, with Polish as her first language, her family in 1944 became refugees and fled to Slovakia where she was put in a school where only Slovak was spoken. In 1945, she was left with an aunt and uncle in Brno, Czechoslovakia while her parents with her younger brother continued to flee west. Her schooling was then in Czech, and for much of the next four years she did not know where her parents were or whether they were still alive. Her parents reached a displaced persons camp in Germany but the "Iron Curtain" fell and it took until 1949 for "Jaroslava Sachno, Stateless" to be issued an Identification and Travel Authorization by the International Refugee Organization and put on a train to Munich, final destination "U.S.A." Her father met her in Munich. In February 1950 the Sachnos arrived in the U.S.A. and the language in school became English. In spite of having gone through the grades in four different languages, Mrs. Brown graduated cum laude from Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton in 1956 and in her senior year won the $1,000 first prize and Gold Medal in the 1955-56 National Essay Contest of the Ladies Auxiliary to the V.F.W. with an essay on "America-Beacon of Hope", which she read to the 11th National Conference on Citizenship in Washington, D.C. In 1958, she spoke to the Future Homemakers of America at their Kansas City national meeting on "What it Means to be a Citizen". A life well and bravely lived, with intelligence, character and spirit. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, May 22, 2014 at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Staunton by Father Joseph Wamala. Inurnment will follow in Thornrose Cemetery, Staunton. Following the inurnment, there will be a reception at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel. Those not wishing to go to Thornrose may go directly to the Stonewall Jackson. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Hospice of the Shenandoah, P.O. Box 215, Fishersville, VA 22939. Henry Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.