Brownie Glen Monnett

Korean War veteran, business owner, and La Verkin resident for more than fifty years, Brownie Glen Monnett passed away at home with his loved ones on August 6, 2022. He was named Glen at birth, but he started going by Brownie at a very young age because that was the name of his favorite dog. When he was five, the courthouse burned down along with all the records, and his pragmatic parents made his preferred name official when they filled out the new birth certificate. Born to George Weston Monnett and Pansy Juanita Phelps, Brownie and his two brothers quickly absorbed their parents’ strong work ethic, love of music, and insatiable wanderlust. As a young man Brownie began a lifelong love affair with music, starting with his father’s homemade guitar and eventually moving to steel guitar, which he perfected over a decades-long career. He joined the USO to help entertain the troops in Vietnam, getting shot at more as a civilian than he had as a soldier. Working the Las Vegas strip and all over the west, Brownie was one of best steel guitar players of his generation, working alongside greats such as Judy Lynn, with whom he toured for years. He taught country music star Tanya Tucker her first guitar lessons, after which she and Brownie’s boys would steal cherries and play football together. Brownie owed more than a career to the steel guitar. He met his future wife Harriett Powell at a church dance his band played in Whitman, Arizona. As their family grew, Harriett and Brownie worked together to provide for their needs doing all kinds of work. They often lived on the road carrying on the family business, and sometimes they lived close to Brownie’s family in Arizona while Brownie traveled for work. Over time, Brownie’s musical career grew, and the family moved to La Verkin, Utah. There Brownie and his sons built Monnett’s Music, where he gave guitar lessons and sold everything from harmonicas to banjos. Later in life Brownie flew guided tours over the Grand Canyon from the Hurricane Airport, but he put far more hours on his Cessna by carting his grandkids all over creation and even letting them take the controls now and then. He and Harriett touched down in 49 of the 50 states with their own plane and had to let a jumbo jet take them to Hawaii. Brownie loved hunting, fishing, Marty Robbins, calisthenics in the morning, garlic, Gunsmoke, a good joke, a bad joke, and especially, his family. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Rex, his son Wayne, and his wife Harriett. Brownie is survived by his sons Glen, Vern, and Harlan; his brother Jim; fourteen grandchildren; and thirty-seven great-grandchildren. We will celebrate his life on Saturday, August 13 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at 70 South 300 West, La Verkin. The viewing will be from 9:00 to 10:30 AM, and the funeral will take place at 11:00 AM. The interment will follow at the La Verkin Cemetery.

Brownie Glen Monnett

April 17, 1932 - August 6, 2022