Obituary of Cara Trevathan Brown Ferguson

WEST COLUMBIA-Funeral service for Dr. Cara Trevathan Brown Ferguson, 93, of West Columbia, will be held at 2:30 p.m., Thursday, December 19, 2013 at Washington Street United Methodist Church, 1401 Washington Street, Columbia, SC 29201. Reverend Dr. Bill Childs will officiate. The family will receive friends from 1:30-2:30 p.m. prior to the service in the Parlor at the church. Burial will follow in Elmwood Cemetery. Honorary pallbearers will be the Holroyd Sunday School Class and the Washington Street United Methodist Church Choir. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Frank Alton Brown Memorial Youth Fund at Washington Street United Methodist Church. Dr. Ferguson, beloved wife of the late Frank Alton Brown and the late Col. Dan S. Ferguson, died Monday, December 16, 2013. Born December 30, 1919 in Paris, Tennessee, she was a daughter of the late Charles David and Margaret Weber Trevathan. Cara grew up working in the Trevathan Drug Company, the family drug store business. She graduated from the University of Tennessee as the sole female graduate in the entire Pharmacy School. Cara then worked on the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, TN during WWII. She married Frank Alton Brown in Oak Ridge at "Chapel on the Hill". Cara and Frank then moved to South Carolina, and started the Columbia Air-O-Blind Company, an aluminum products manufacturing company in 1947. She continued to work in every facet of this business up until the present day. She was truly a pioneer and advocate for women's participation in all aspects of business and professional endeavors. She worked closely with her two sons during their entire adult lives and provided not only them, but everyone she touched with a quiet gentle inspiration to succeed and persevere. Her friendly smile and pleasant voice will be missed by all who knew her. She is survived by her son, Charles Trevathan Brown of West Columbia; cousins, Joe Gibson Peters (Geneva) of Beaumont, TX and Charlotte Peters Haynie (Thomas Powell Haynie) of Houston, TX; along with a large and loving extended family. She was preceded in death by her son, Frank Madison Brown and her sister, Margaret Peters. The family has entrusted Thompson Funeral Home of West Columbia, 200 State Street, West Columbia, SC 29169 with the arrangements.