Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....BRAKE, Lois Jane (Wilson) 2002
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LaVonne Bennett lib@dogsbark.comMarch 15, 2006, 1:34 pm

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association, Volume 38  December 2002  Number 3; submitted with permission from editor, Grayden D. Slowins
Lois Jane Wilson Brake, 83, widow of Elwood Brake, Jr., mother of Michael, 
Brenda, Max, Bruce and James Brake, and Virginia Davis, daughter of D. Lee 
Wilson, granddaughter of Riley N. Wilson, who was a legendary pioneer farmer, 
merchant, constable and deputy sheriff in Sebewa Township and later Ionia.  
Riley Wilson owned the last house to the north on the west side of Keefer Hwy 
in East Sebewa, long owned by Burton & Helen Gilbert and now by the Jackson 
family.  His biggest shoot-out in Sebewa was with a Mr. Dann, who threshed-out 
and sold some wheat which he had previously mortgaged.  Later Riley Wilson 
moved to Ionia, served as Chief Deputy or Under-Sheriff, and ran a store at 318 
W. Main Street, which is the north-west corner of Main St. & Cornell Alley, 
long occupied by the Sherwin-Williams paint store and now by Curves for Women.  
The late Wilson Dalzell of Ypsilanti-Reed, whose widow Greta died recently, was 
also a grandchild of Riley Wilson.
Jane Wilson was born in Ionia, September 1, 1918, graduated from Ionia High 
School, from college in 1939, and began teaching at Kent City in 1939-40 and 
1940-41, and was invited back from retirement in Arizona for the 50th class 
reunion of the Class of '42 in 1992.  She passed away in Mesa, AZ, May 29, 2002.
Jane and Elwood were active in the Ionia First Methodist Chruch and the Mesa 
Arizona First United Methodist Church.  He was chairman of the building 
committee when the Ionia Sandstone addition to the Ionia church was built in 
the early 1950s.  Elwood was an officer in Ionia County National Bank.  After 
the November elections in 1952, they moved to Washington, D. C., where he 
became Chief-of-Staff to Congressman Alvin M. Bentley, Jr.  Elwood made several 
trips back to Michigan to campaign with Congressman Bentley and we saw them at 
the Ionia Free Fair.  He visited us at the Portland farm in 1957 and we visited 
them in Arizona in 1971.  Bentley left Congress in January 1961 and the Brakes 
settled in the Mesa-Tempe area.  Jane taught in Arizona and Elwood died there 
September 27, 1979.

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