Ellie Brown, a 1961 graduate of Jefferson High School, was honored with the Tower of Fame Award at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Bell Tower Festival Friday evening. The ceremony had a different look than in years past, with the backdrop not being the historic county courthouse, but the back of a rented concert stage brought in for the festival.
The setting was new but award ceremony was not. Doug Rieder served as emcee, Bell Tower Festival chair Philip Heisterkamp gave welcoming remarks, and Tower of Fame Award selection committee chair Carole Custer presented the award.
Brown was honored for her impact and involvement at the national level of the Patriotic Order of Does, serving as president of the national organization in 1995. She led a $1 million project to build a national Does headquarters and Heritage Center in Omaha, NE, and is chair of the Heritage Center. She has been a national trustee and is one of 30 lifetime directors on the Does executive council. She serves as the Does national financial officer and tax advisor, and since 2002 has been chair of the national convention committee.
In accepting the award, Brown said she was filled with joy and excitement, and also a sense of humility.
She shared the story of her early years, of living with her aunt and uncle through her elementary school, and then living with four local families over the course of her middle and high school years. “I firmly believe that each of us is the product of those around us, and during those vulnerable teenage years, each of those four families introduced me to their own family values, each one with separate traditions,” she said. “I know now I was taught ethical and cultural principles by each of those families that to this day guide my behavior, decision making, and acknowledgment of how individuals should and do interact with each other.”
She married Gary Pevestorf after high school and began working for a CPA. Gary was killed in an explosion at the West Central Coop grain elevator in August 1974, leaving Ellie with a young daughter. It was while coping and adjusting to that loss that she first learned of the Jefferson Elks lodge and the Does.
She married Steve Brown, an Elk, in 1976. Steve and Bob Woodhouse opened a funeral home in Jefferson, now known as Brown Funeral Home. “I found another way to help the community through my presence at the funeral home. Life was good again,” she said.
She wanted to find more ways to help the community that had supported her, and recalled the ways the Does and Elks had helped her after Gary’s death. She joined the Does for that reason.
In 1981, Marilynn Hoskinson of Jefferson was national Does president. Ellie was part of the Flag Day ceremony the Jefferson Does presented at the national Does convention that year in Rapid City, SD. She was impressed by the friendship and support she saw there among the Does, and decided then she would seek roles in the local drove and beyond.
She continued building her career, working in the office of attorney Bill Ostlund. When he was appointed as a judge his practice was purchased by Powell, Shirley and Finneseth, with another Finneseth later joining the practice. She said she knew her employment was part of the sales agreement. She remained with that firm and retired from Finneseth and Dalen in 2025.
During his opening remarks Heisterkamp acknowledged Bell Tower Festival sponsors. Home State Bank, Journey Financial and Wild Rose Casino and Resort were Platinum sponsors. Sponsors were Home State Bank, Fareway Meat & Grocery, Jefferson Telecom, Greene County Medical Center, Bob and Becci Hamilton, Peoples Bank, Wahl McAtee Tire Service, Re/Max Legacy Realty, Edward Jones- Dean Dozier, M & W Ag Supply, Heartland Bank, Rueter’s, Neese Inc, HyVee, Greater Life Health & Wellness, Midland Power Cooperative, Slininger Schroeder Funeral Home, State Farm Insurance- Lee Horbach, Mid-Iowa Insurance, the Rotary Club of Jefferson, Regency Park Nursing & Rehabilitation, A & W Family Restaurant, Sebourn Drone Services, Community Insurance Agency and Rite-Way Towing.
