Minister Nan Brown Curtis, 74, of Selma died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, on Oct. 15, 2022, after a lengthy battle with lung cancer.
Viewing and family visitation will be 5-7 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23 at El Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, 219 Persimmon Tree Road, Valley Grande.
Her Celebration of Life will begin with visitation at 10 a.m. and funeral at 11 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 24 at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, 1548 Dr. F. D. Reese St., Selma, with Rev. James Perkins of Ebenezer as pulpit conductor and Rev. Coley Chestnut of Fresh Anointing House of Worship of Selma as eulogist.
Interment will be at Pine View Memory Gardens, 5171 Alabama Highway 22 East in Valley Grande immediately following the service.
All who attend her services are asked to wear masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Her final arrangements are entrusted to Randall Miller’s Funeral Service, Inc., 608 St. Phillips St.
Nannie Mae Summers was born in State Line, Mississippi, on April 13, 1948, to J.C. and Johnnie Mae Summers. She was their firstborn child.
The family moved to Prichard, Alabama, when J.C. got a better job to provide for his growing family. Young Nan loved taking on responsibility for her siblings as the big sister.
After graduating from Blount High School, young Nan moved to Selma, Alabama, to attend the Good Samaritan School of Nursing in the summer of 1965. Nan would later go on to continue her nursing education at Wallace Community College and completed a teaching certification at Auburn University at Montgomery for vocational education.
In 1967, John Calvin Brown of Sardis made Nan his bride. In 1977, the couple expanded their family when they had Staci. Jaclyn followed in 1980. Nan and Calvin delighted in and doted on their girls. Though her grief was deep after Calvin died of cancer in 1983, she soon picked herself up and fully committed herself to single motherhood.
As Staci and Jaclyn grew into teenagers, Nan moved on from her job as director of Riley College to become a health care sciences educator for the Dallas County School System so she could have a job that ended early and she could be home with her girls or support their activities.
During this time, she had been dating her long-time love, Richard Curtis. Nan and Richard married in 1998. They both shared a love of joking and laughing, and their home was always filled with extended family and friends.
During her years as a nurse and nurse educator, Nan also worked at Good Samaritan
Hospital, Vaughan Regional Medical Center, the Fathers of St. Edmund, Wallace Community College and as a home health nurse. She was also a member Chi Eta Phi Sorority Inc., a nursing sorority, where she was a Rho Eta Chapter charter member, former chapter president and former regional chaplain.
Nan accepted her call into the Ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in 2005. She was ordained by her pastor and mentor, Rev. Joe J. Peterson, and became an associate minister at her and Richard’s church, El Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Valley Grande.
With her girls beginning adulthood, Nan enjoyed helping her sisters with school pickups and after-school care for their kids. She was over the moon when her grandchildren Ross David (Granny’s Precious) arrived in 2010 and Charlotte Grace (Granny’s Ladybug) arrived in 2018. She enjoyed helping initiate her girls into motherhood and spending time with Ross and Charlotte.
Her select affiliations and honors include El Bethel Missionary Baptist Church (Associate Minister; Bible Study Teacher; Youth Leader; Missionary Teacher), Shady Grove District (Dean of Sunday School and BTU Congress; Presenter for the Women’s Department), Alabama Baptist Women’s State Auxiliary, The Venusettes Club, UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Office of Community Outreach & Engagement Affiliate and Community Advisory Board Member, 2014 Delta Pi Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. Distinguished Citizen Award and a 2021 Alabama News Network “Pay It Forward” Honoree.
On October 15, 2022, God decided it was time for His child to take her well-earned rest and she died peacefully at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama.
Among other loved ones, she is reunited in Heaven with her parents; Calvin; and her siblings J.W., Bobbie, Sherri and Gerome Sr.
She leaves to carry on her legacy: her husband, Richard; her daughters, Staci (Gerald) Brooks and Jaclyn (Kevin) Wright; grandchildren, Ross Anderson and Charlotte Brooks; bonus daughters, Caprice Curtis and Shenika Jones; bonus grandson, Carter Jones; siblings, Johnny (Minnie) Summers, Janet (Billy) Swopes, Mitchell (Corliss) Summers, Veronica (Edgar) Brown, Karol (Timothy) Purdie and Tanya (Leroy) Miles; her in-laws Vinona Summers, Ollie James, Ira Jean (Kenneth) Rivers, Norma Jean (Earnest) Tate, Cheryl (Eric) Ratcliffe, Glenn (Darlene) Curtis, Irma (Joe) Williams, Charles (Pat) Brown and Paul Waddy; three aunts, Shirley Wimbush, Cora Reynolds and Ella Hill; and one uncle, William Summers.
