Josephine Reilly Brown Stevenson (Jerrie) of Bay Head, NJ and a long-time resident of Montclair, died on Saturday, January 5 at Arden Courts in West Orange, NJ.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 19 at 11 a.m. at St. James Episcopal Church, 581 Valley Road in Upper Montclair.

Jerrie was born in Montclair and graduated from the Montclair Kimberly Academy and the Marjorie Webster Junior College in Washington DC. She studied ballet in New York City with George Balanchine's Ballet Society, a predecessor company of the New York City Ballet. She married the late William Turner Brown Jr. and is the mother of Bud Brown of Virginia Beach, VA (spouse: Kitty), Patricia Brown-Feighery of Philadelphia, PA (Rob), Carolyn Brown-Kalthoff of Upper Montclair (Michael), and Andy Brown of Wyckoff, NJ (Stephanie). The couple had nine grandchildren. Jerrie is also survived by her sisters, Janet Finney and Jarvis Nolan, both of San Diego, CA, and her sister-in-law, Jackie Sherwood, of Scottsdale, AZ. She was predeceased by her second husband, G. Barnes Stevenson of Bay Head.

Jerrie founded the Jerrie Brown School of Ballet in Upper Montclair, where she taught for 25 years. She was a member of the Junior League of Montclair, the Montclair Operetta Club, the Montclair Golf Club, and the Bay Head Yacht Club.

In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made in Jerrie's honor to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America at http://www.alzfdn.org