Connie Brown Koechner

Connie Lynn (Brown) Koechner, daughter of the late Henry Morgan and Avis Corrina (Sheppard) Brown, was born July 3, 1955, in Mountain Grove, Missouri, and departed this life January 15, 2023, in Springfield, Missouri, at the age of 67.

Connie was born and raised in Mountain Grove. She graduated from Mountain Grove High School with the Class of 1973 and remained in contact with her classmates and participated in organizing many class activities and reunions.

She started her career with the Frisco Railroad in Springfield, Missouri, straight out of high school. She worked in many jobs with Frisco and increased in experience and seniority. After several railroad mergers, she spent the later part of her career as an administrative assistant to the executives at Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railway in Memphis, Tennessee. Connie was a “railroader” at heart. If you had a question about the railroad, Connie knew the answer or knew how to get the answer. She retired from BNSF in 2015 and moved from Memphis back to Mountain Grove following an illness that left her confined to a wheelchair and on kidney dialysis.

However, that didn’t dampen her enthusiasm for life. Connie was a “people person.” She is remembered for her smile. She was very caring and giving and became involved in many church and community activities, giving of her time volunteering and donating to many charitable causes.

Connie loved her family, loved children, and loved to fish. Connie was always the first one to encourage the Brown family to gather at their cabin at “the Pomme” for reunion in June and for Thanksgiving. She also helped restart and organize the Sheppard family reunion. She kept in continuous touch by phone and Facebook with all her aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Connie had a special fondness for children, especially her nieces, nephews, and the great-nieces and nephews that lived next door. She attended family birthdays and other special events and was the happiest when she was handing out gifts to the kids at birthdays and Christmas.

Although in her younger days she played softball and was an avid bowler, her passion in her adult life was fishing. She envied “the boys”, meaning her brothers and nephews, going on fishing trips to Oklahoma. She insisted that she and Susan start a girls’ fishing trip that started and fueled her hobby. Connie fished every chance she got at numerous lakes in Oklahoma, Missouri, and the surrounding states.

Besides her parents, Connie was preceded in death by an infant, Sally, and one brother, Henry Brown.

Connie is survived by her siblings, Debbie Barbe and husband, Dr. David Barbe, Susan Bushong, Marty Brown and wife, Janet, and Brad Brown and wife, Angie, all of Mountain Grove, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends who will miss her dearly.