In what friends have described as a tragic love story, 65-year-old Frances Long Brown of Louisville, Kentucky, died on January 29, 2015. Her death was the result of a gunshot wound inflicted by her husband, Paul G. Brown Jr., who then took his own life in their Fern Creek home on Fegenbush Lane. Louisville Metro Police investigated the case as a murder-suicide.
The couple, who had been together for 50 years, were reportedly facing significant health challenges.
Frances had battled the effects of polio for most of her life, having been placed in an iron lung at the age of five. Her husband, Paul, had recently been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Friends of the couple indicated that they had left notes suggesting the act was a joint decision to avoid the suffering they anticipated from their illnesses.
Frances and Paul were described as deeply in love and inseparable. They were active in the community, having founded the Louisville Chapter of the Polio Survivors Organization in 1985, which they ran for 20 years. No arrests were made in the case as the sole suspect was deceased. The couple’s friends expressed that they hoped people would remember their story as one of love and devotion rather than just a tragedy.
