Marcia Brownlie

Marcia Elizabeth Brownlie (Pavelin) of Pensacola Beach, FL, passed peacefully on October 19, 2024, held in the devoted care of her three beloved and loving children.

Family was the most important thing in the world to Marcia. She was a loving and faithful wife to her husband of nearly 62 years Bob and a loving and proud mother to her three children Mark, Elizabeth and Jennifer, Nanny (grandmother) to Clark and Alex, and Great Nanny to Webb and Beau (who have a baby sister on the way).

Marcia grew up Back of the Yards in the South Side of Chicago. She graduated from Gage Park High School and got her nursing degree from Evangelical Hospital of Chicago School of Nursing (1957). A life-long Cubs fan she was proud to live to see the Cubs win the World Series in 2016. 

As a young nurse Marcia traveled to Hawaii on vacation, pre-jet service and pre-statehood as she liked to point out. She fell in love with the islands and courageously decided to move there to live and work. While there she met her husband Bob at a Navy dance, and they married in 1963. Three children followed and the family moved around thanks to Bob's Navy job. They lived in California, Maryland, Hawaii, Bermuda and Japan before finally settling in Gulf Breeze, Florida in 1980. Years later, she lived in Kuwait for a few days until her husband evacuated 26 people including her from Kuwait on the day that Saddam invaded.

She took a pause from her nursing work while her children were young, and the family lived overseas but returned to work when they moved to Florida. While she worked at all three main hospitals in the Pensacola area, Sacred Heart was the one she worked at the longest and that was dearest to her. She used to say she "bled purple" because of her love of Sacred Heart. When she was no longer able to be on her feet for long periods performing the duties of nursing she transitioned into various coding, quality assurance, peer review and similar work. She was proud to tell people she had been a registered nurse for 57 years and after retirement she volunteered at the Interfaith Ministries Good Samaritan Clinic in Gulf Breeze.

People might remember Marcia as the lady who decorated her walker for all the big holidays and who gave out candy and rubber duckies and other delights. She found joy in gift-giving and trying to make others happy and was known to neighborhood children as Nanny Neighbor. She had various creative hobbies over the years, from needlepoint to calligraphy to cake decorating to doodling and more. She was also a great cook who taught her children young how to throw huge parties where everyone was welcome, and she left her children with a love of cooking and celebration. She loved collecting assorted decorative objects and treasures and took great pride in keeping a clean, organized and beautiful home for her family.

Always interested in a good laugh, Marcia had her own special unique sense of humor and loved to share stories about things that were interesting or important to her. She tried to keep faith that everything would turn out okay and to look on the bright side of things even when she experienced stresses and worries. She had an inner strength that held her up through the trials of life and she was as selfless as she could possibly be. She always made sure her family knew how much she loved them and she will be lovingly remembered and fondly missed.

Marcia is survived by her husband Robert Brownlie, son Mark, daughters Elizabeth Tickle and Jennifer, grandsons Clark Brownlie-Carey (Jenny) and Alex Tickle, and great grandsons Webb and Beau Brownlie-Carey (with little sister Reed on the way).

The family would like to thank all of the health care workers who assisted the family with Marcia’s care during the final two years of her life.

Funeral services and interment will be held on November 9th, 2024 at 10 a.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church in Gulf Breeze, Florida, where Marcia had been a congregant since 1980. A Celebration of Life Reception will be held after the service in St Francis’s Parish Hall. Donations in her honor can be made to the Interfaith Ministries Good Samaritan Clinic in Gulf Breeze.