Mini Bios

Laurie Brown’s interest in Lewis and Clark started with her first meeting at Weippe, ID, for a regional meeting in 2014. Since then, she has attended every annual meeting since 2014 and some regional meetings. A regional meeting that stands out to Laurie is when she attended the regional meeting in Rapid City, South Dakota. One of the highlights was seeing Mount Rushmore. She enjoys history, meeting new people and seeing friends along the trail.

Laurie’s great-grandparents on both sides of my family were pioneers and homesteaders in Eastern Washington where she still makes her home. She has a rich family farm heritage and although she no longer farms, she enjoyed the lifestyle immensely.

She went back to school online 13 years ago and finished her bachelors degree in Business Administration. Not only did she farm for 30 years, she owned a quilt shop for 5 years and had a home based business in addition to raising 2 daughters. She currently works at WSU with fond thoughts for retirement in 2 years. She processes payroll, HR, and is on the finance team for her department. Laurie is a musician and plays for church. She likes to quilt, read and garden. Laurie has 2 granddaughters and enjoys spending time with family.

Holly’s interest in Idaho’s history was piqued when she began her teaching career teaching fourth grade. Although she grew up in southeastern Idaho and had gone through Idaho schools, Holly wasn’t addicted to history until she started teaching it. And the best way to learn anything is to teach it. Holly started her endless quest of reading and learning about her home state’s history so she could pass on the exciting stories to her students.

In 1998 Holly and her husband, Bob, attended their first LCTA annual meeting in Great Falls, Montana, which ignited their quest to “follow the trail”. They’ve since followed Lewis’s preparations for the journey from the “Eastern Legacy” beginning, driven much of the trail from Pittsburgh to Astoria visiting a lot of sites mentioned in the journals, and kayaked along the white cliffs of the Missouri River. “Although we certainly aren’t experts on the expedition,” Holly says, “We have experienced the enormity of our vast country and appreciate the task Jefferson gave Lewis. Presently our ‘exploring’ the trail continues in our 1950 Oldsmobile 88 with the Vintage Motor Car Club.”

Holly has been Treasurer of the Idaho Chapter since 2008 and is currently Secretary of the newly created Pacific Northwest Region of LCTA.