Cynthia Brown Kelly, sister of governor, dies at 81

Cynthia Brown Kelly, a public school teacher better known as the daughter of one California governor and sister of another, died Sunday after a brief illness.

“From West Portal in the ’40s, to yesterday in the hospital, my sister Cynthia had an infectious smile that would light up any room,” said Gov. Brown, who bid goodbye to his big sister with an all-day visit on Saturday.

To the end, the four-bedroom home is preserved exactly as Gov. Pat Brown and his wife, Bernice, left it, with a study wallpapered in tartan plaid, covered in pictures of her father in the company of Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

“Like her father, Pat Brown, she had an exuberance and love of life, an appreciation of nature and a genuine interest in people,” said her daughter, Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kelly.

While never running for political office herself, Mrs. Kelly was a tireless campaigner and constant surrogate, speaking at events in place of her father, her brother and sister Kathleen Brown, former state treasurer and a 1994 candidate for governor.

Mrs. Kelly attended West Portal Elementary School and Aptos Middle High, before leaving the public schools for Star of the Sea Academy, a Catholic high school for girls.

Two of her four daughters continue to teach, Carol Clark, at St. Gabriel Elementary School near San Francisco Zoo, and Cynny Sheehan, in the same Daly City public school district where her mother taught.

A tennis player with a wicked left-handed slice and a steady return of service, Mrs. Kelly played well into her 70s and swam in the Belvedere Lagoon outside her home.