Family and friends
Celeste Brown Thomas, retired New York Times staff editor and Oneonta, New York, native, passed away June 20 in Rochester, NY, of complications from uterine serous cancer. She was 61. She had been treated for the disease, a rare and aggressive cancer, at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Rochester since May 2017. She died surrounded by family having been under hospice care at home fo... more
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Join MemoriesWendell Brown Celeste and Wendell in Ithaca NY 1963
Wendell Brown Celeste and Wendell May 3 1965
Wendell Brown Celeste in Oneonta High School choir
Chase Thomas West coast road-trip 1976
Wendell Brown Celeste, Wendell, Sheryl 1994
Chase Thomas Married atop the Peninsula Hotel in New York
Chase Thomas Outside of her Manhattan apartment
Chase Thomas Michael's bar mitzvah
Chase Thomas Exploring the zoo in Las Vegas
Janell Boudreaux I snapped this during my first visit to the city, while we shared a nice visit at a coffee shop in Manhattan. Celeste also had a undeniable glow. She will be terrible missed.
Nancy Smyth We were both attending our Bugbee School reunion in 2006-- it was wonderful to reconnect with her again then. And I just need to say that we called her CB during our time at Bugbee, until she returned from England, when she worked to get us all to call her Celeste.
Chase Thomas
Chase Thomas Celeste with her father and brother
Chase Thomas Christmas 2017
Paula Shulman An unforgettable visit to Cornell where my sweetest sister was so kind and wonderful and giving I love you forever I will never forget you.
Chase Thomas Mom watching the sunset with me on Cornell's campus.
Chase Thomas Walks in Highland Park in Rochester
Chase Thomas Visiting the George Eastman Museum in Rochester
Nancy Smyth I've been trying to post here for days but I haven't been able to find many words, just feelings. Celeste and I used her move to Rochester as a chance for us to renew our childhood friendship. I last saw her in early February, a month before the pandemic shut everything down. She had such a remarkable intelligence, a wry wit, and a wonderful smile. She accepted every challenge that life brought her matter of factly, including her impending death--she would have disagreed with calling that courage, but that's what I call it. I need to go through bound albums to find older photos from childhood and our high school reunions, but here is one of the two of us on her 61st birthday, this past November, when we got together for lunch.
Oh how I loved her. We recently were laughing about bad editing, as we were wont to do. Despite all she was battling, she wrote - in typical Celestial Brownie style - on Feb. 11, 2020: Yes, sorry about these NYT errors; embarrassing. Management has been dropping experienced copy editors like confetti, making a pared-down print staff also carry in...
It has been years since I saw Celeste. We went to Bugbee school as children. Then I saw her often growing up in Oneonta. She was a beautiful soul with a beautiful voice both figuratively and literally. I know she is singing with the angels now.
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Wendell Brown Wendell and Celeste
Wendell Brown Wendell and Celeste Neahwa Park
Celeste was a great neighbor and friend. I enjoyed our many chats. I remember we were roommates many years ago when we chaperoned a Middle School trip to Montreal with our sons. She was a good travel companion in that she embraced all the trip had to offer with enthusiasm and open mindedness which defined her approach to life in general. I’m glad ...
Siobhan Bennett Celeste was one of the highlights of my years at Oneonta High School - where we graduated together in 1976. Beautiful inside and out - intelligent and gifted - Celeste was a wonderfully rare human being. I will mourn for her - her absence in this world leaves a space impossible to fill.
Wendell Brown Celeste with family
Allison Bookhout So many memories of CB. Bugbee school musicals- she was Oliver Twist! In Pinafore she was Hebe,one of the "sisters and cousins and aunts". She was always kind, funny, insightful, and just durn sweet. One of a kind. I love her and miss her. We got together every Christmastime, and I cherish a birthday gift of a cozy blanket she gave me out of the blue! So sorry for your loss, Chase, Wendall, and families.
Celeste was a wonderful girl! I lived next door to her and Wendell for many years as we were growing up. We connected again in the last few years and it was a pleasure to go to lunch and chat about old and new things happening in our life! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
“Mom, why do the best people die?” “When you’re in a garden, which flowers do you pick?” “The most beautiful ones.” – Unknown - Celeste was one of the best humans I ever met and I call myself lucky to have known her. Some memories: - I spent wonderful long weekends in high school visiting Celeste and roommate Indrani Kodali at NYU grad school. Sh...
My dear sister, I will miss you so much. You have shown me what true courage is. You have always been so skillful in being able to focus on what is good and have taught me so much. I will miss our wonderful weekly talks. I will miss your kindness and support while fighting a dreadful illness. I never met a more optimistic soul and I know you are at...
Michael Twersky
I was Celeste’s room mate for 2 years, while at NYU. Those were the best years of my life, partly because of Celeste. We explored every nook and corner of New York together, even went to Brussels/ Paris together. We shared meals, dinners, watched movies and I had much, much to learn from her. She gave me so much love and friendship - was literally ...
Linda Chion Starting out in my first journalism job with a fellow New Yorker in the small southern town of New Bern, North Carolina, I can't begin to tell you how important those days were to me. Then Celeste left to go to the Jacksonville, FL, Journal, and she told me about an opening there, so I worked by her side again. Celeste was kind, sweet, intelligent and talented. A tireless reporter who dug deep to tell the story right. Her smile was infectious and her laughter filled the room. We're pictured here with Lee Barnes, our colleague in New Bern, and what a great run we had together at the Sun-Journal. Rest in peace, Celeste. What a beautiful human being.
I worked with Celeste at The New York Times. I was at the wedding atop the Peninsula Hotel. The roses on her table were from my garden. It was a magnificent day for a magnificent woman. Years later she would bring Chase with her to the newsroom on a Saturday for the late night shift when child care was hard to find. What a personality he had! We...
It was always wonderful catching up with Celeste at family gatherings on Rita's side (her stepmother). Celeste was a radiant person -- so smart, kind, curious, positive, interested in others and full of grace. She left her imprint. Pamela Brownstein
Chase Thomas On today's Thanksgiving, what would have been Mom's birthday, I am grateful for all the time I was lucky enough to spend with her and all the lessons she taught me. Miss her every day. Love you Mom. Pictured is a collage of Mom during her visit to Manhattan Beach in 1995. Stunner.
