Janet B. Brewster

Janet Bradham Brewster, 85, widow of Marcus Victor Brewster, died Friday, Dec. 29, 2006, in Melrose-Wakefield Hospital in Melrose, Mass.

Born April 19, 1921, in Manning, she was a daughter of the late John Ingram and Elizabeth Allred Bradham. She attended George Washington University, Washington, D.C., where in 1942 she met and married Marcus V. Brewster. They made their home in Stoneham, Mass., a suburb of Boston, where she continued her education at Suffolk University and Massachusetts Bay College, graduating in business administration. She and her husband lived in the Boston area until returning to Manning in 1984. After the death of her husband in 1995, she returned to her longtime home of Stoneham in 1999, to reside with her daughter.

Janet worked 23 years for the U.S. Government, Departments of HEW and Education, as an administrator, an investigator and as a civil rights specialist, during which time she pursued genealogical research as a vocation. Discovering that very little had been written about the Bradham heritage, Janet resolved to learn and record all she could about Bradham families and preserve it for future generations. She retired in 1981 and devoted the next five years full time to researching and writing A Bradham Family History and Genealogy.

She was a member of the First Congregational Church of Stoneham since 1950, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society, Sumter Chapter S.C. Genealogical Society, Three Rivers Historical Society, Genealogical Society of North Brevard, Clarendon County S.C. Historical Society, the Huguenot Society of South Carolina and United Daughters of the Confederacy. In addition to her Bradham heritage, she extensively researched her maternal lines, having authored several typescripts on the Cordell, Stepp, and Allred families, all presently in preparation for publication.

She is survived by two daughters, Carol Nickerson of Stoneham and Marsha Briones of Honolulu, Hawaii; a son, M. Bradham Brewster of Fairfax, Va.; a sister, W. Ellen Corrigan of Titusville, Fla.; 10 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

Graveside services were held on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2006 in the Manning Cemetery with the Rev. Jerry Cottone officiating.

Memorials may be made to Fellowship Baptist Cemetery, c/o Betty Smith, 2387 Old Georgetown Road, Manning, S.C. 29102.

Stephens Funeral Home and Crematory of Manning was in charge of arrangements.