Sara Shallenberger Brown is a generous and long-time supporter of Actors Theatre of Louisville. Her many occupations have included preserving and protecting air, water and land for numerous organizations. She has lectured on conservation and horticulture. She has worked as an artist and designer as well as fundraiser for educational, historical and environmental organizations. She is the owner of Ashbourne Farm in Oldham County, Kentucky where she was a breeder of thoroughbreds, cattle and Cavalier King Spaniels, and raised corn, wheat and tobacco crops.

On September 1, 1998, when Actors Theatre of Louisville opened the doors for its new season, the lobby in the original Bank of Louisville Building looked 160 years younger. Built in 1837 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972, it is one of the best examples of Greek Revival Architecture in America and had not had a major renovation since Actors Theatre of Louisville acquired it in 1971. As a gift for his mother’s 87th birthday, Owsley Brown II, at the time chairman and CEO of the Brown-Forman Corporation, made a generous donation for the renovation of the Main Lobby in his mother’s name.

Sara Shallenberger Brown was born on April 14, 1911 in Valdez, Alaska to Brigadier General Martin Conrad Shallenberger and Ina Hamilton Dowdy. She is the wife of the late W.L. Lyons Brown with whom she has four children, W.L. Lyons Brown, Jr., Martin Shallenberger Brown, Owsley Brown II and Ina Brown Bond. She has numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.

A 1932 graduate of Sweet Briar College in Virginia, Mrs. Brown has studied art at numerous institutions including Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C.; Columbus School of Art in Columbus, Ohio; Academy of Fine Art in Vienna, Austria; Aba Novak School of Painting in Budapest, Hungary; and Norton Gallery of Art in Palm Beach, Florida.

In her civic life locally, Mrs. Brown has served on the boards of Junior League of Louisville, Stage One (Louisville’s Children’s Theatre), Metro United Way, Louisville Central Area, Waterfront Development Corporation, Downtown Development Corporation and the Speed Museum as well as served numerous times on the Mayor’s Advisory Committee. On the state level Mrs. Brown has served on the boards of Shakertown at Pleasant Hill and Transylvania University and was appointed chairperson of the Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission by three successive Governors. Mrs. Brown is founder of River Fields – Guardians of the Ohio River and Saint Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church.

Nationally, she has been a board member of the National Audubon Society, Nature Conservancy, National Council of the World Wildlife Fund, Trust for Public Land, National Parks and Conservation Association, American Farmland Trust and Scenic America. Twice she has served as delegate to the United Nations Conference on World Population and severed as a delegate to the International Union for Conservation and Nature.

— Andrew Crocker