Adrienne Brown mourned, after mysterious death following liposuction surgery

Jet, Jan 29, 1996

As the investigation into the cause of her death continues, services were recently held in Los Angeles for Adrienne Brown, wife of "Godfather of Soul" James Brown.

The private services were held at the Old North Church on the grounds of Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills. The brief service included prayers, scriptures and the song Amazing Grace. Part of the service was in Hebrew as Mrs. Brown, who died at the age of 45, was Jewish.

The program included a message Brown wrote for his late wife that read: "Dear Adrienne, Honey my life will never be the same, wait for me. I want to be the first guest on your T.V. show in heaven. Yours always, James."

Those on hand for the service included `Little' Richard Penniman. Casey and Jean Kasem, Ja'Net DuBois and Dan Aykroyd. Penniman told reporters before going into the service: "James is hurt, but he is a believer in God. He and I were kids together in Macon, GA. I started him in the business. I met Adrienne when she was doing make-up on `Sohd Gold.' James is a survivor. I'm sure he's leaning on God."

Mrs. Brown died January 6, two days after having cosmetic surgery in L.A. She was pronounced dead at Century City Hospital after being taken there by paramedics, hospital officials said. She had been recovering at a facility in nearby Beverly Hills.

The L.A. County coroner's office told Jet that they had been informed by her physician that she also had some heart difficulty. However, Scott Carrier, the coroner's office spokesman, said: "Mrs. Brown showed early signs of heart problems, but we won't know for sure until toxicological and other test results come in, the exact cause of death. Right now it's not conclusive enough to say that her heart difficulty was the cause of death." Carrier said he expected the various tests to take about two weeks to complete.

Mrs. Brown's mother, Rita Fischer, briefly told reporters after the funeral that her daughter had had liposuction surgery. "She had liposuction. To be under surgery for eight hours was too much for her," she said. "My Adrienne was a good girl."

Hospital officials in L.A. would not divulge any information regarding Mrs. Brown's surgery or death.

Brown met his wife of 10 years in 1981 on the set of "Solid Gold" where she was a stylist. Besides "Solid Gold," she was a stylist for such shows as "Days of Our Lives."

Additional funeral services were set for the Imperial Theater in Brown's hometown of August, GA. She is also set to be buried there.