Stella Browne, 60, helped troubled juveniles

Stella Browne often logged 14- and 16-hour days at the state Department of Juvenile Justice.

Johnny Vaughn, who operates two homes in Laurens County for troubled boys and girls, said he remembers traveling from Dublin in Middle Georgia to Atlanta to attend a meeting. When he’d arrive in the city the night before, he’d contact Ms. Browne.

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Stella Browne, who saved newborn puppies as a child, worked late to help kids.

“Many times, she’d still be in that office, working,” said Mr. Vaughn, who worked with Ms. Browne more than two decades. “Brother, she epitomized taking care of other people’s children.”

Animals, too.

Johnnie Ellison of Stone Mountain remembers the time her older sister discovered seven newborn puppies under her house. She took them in, then recruited Mrs. Ellison and other relatives to feed them with baby bottles.

“The puppies had to be fed so many times each day,” Mrs. Ellison said. “All seven of them lived, even though a veterinarian had told her that some wouldn’t. She loved animals, and had plans with a neighbor to set up a doggie day care.”

Stella M. Harris Browne, 60, of Decatur died Friday of complications of cancer and several strokes at VistaCare Hospice in Decatur. The funeral is 1 p.m. Thursday at St. Phillip AME Church in Atlanta. Brown & Young Home of Funerals is in charge of arrangements.

Ms. Browne had weighed going into the medical field, her sister said, but didn’t like the idea of having to give shots. So she made a career out of helping children, notably those troubled and disadvantaged kids who’d run afoul of the law. When she retired in 2006 after a 34-year career, Ms. Browne was an assistant office director for the state Department of Juvenile Justice.

“She felt the children were lost and that they needed extra love or some extra care,” her sister said. “She always saw good in everybody and everything.”

When Ms. Browne lived near a halfway house, she would let the men do yard work for pocket money. When they told her they were hungry, she’d fix them bowls of cereal or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Relatives, at her urging, started buying canned sodas that they would leave outside for the men.

“We were concerned for her safety, but she wasn’t,” her sister said. “She had a warm spirit.”

And when it came to juveniles, she went beyond the call of duty, said Mr. Vaughn, the colleague from Dublin.

“We take our kids [from the group homes] to Disney World every year,” he said, “and every year she would find the funds to help me do that. She used to help sponsor our kids.”

Ms. Browne was active in several organizations, including the Juvenile Service Association, the National Association of Black Social Workers and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Additional survivors include her mother, Ruth M. Harris of Camden, S.C.; and two other sisters, Bobbie Burkes of Riverdale and Shirley Lanier of Milwaukee.