R.I.P. Alaskan Bush People patriarch Billy Brown

[IceWizard]

R.I.P. Alaskan Bush People patriarch
Billy Brown









Alaskan Bush People star Billy Brown has died.

“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved patriarch
Billy Brown passed away last night after suffering from a seizure,”
son Bear Brown says of his father, whose clan first rose to fame
when their hit reality series debuted on Discovery Channel in 2014.
“He was our best friend - a wonderful and loving dad, granddad
and husband and he will be dearly missed. He lived his life on
his terms, off the grid and off the land and taught us to live
like that as well. We plan to honor his legacy going forward,
and to continue with his dream. We ask for privacy and prayers
during this painful time. God Bless everyone!”

Billy Brown was 68.

Billy Brown was raised in a small town in North Texas before moving
to nearby Fort Worth. “We settled down and tried to do every- thing
‘right,’” Billy told People in 2015 of starting a small plumbing company
and creating a life with new wife Ami in 1979. “But I came home one
night and told Ami, ‘I don’t know if I can do a 9-to-5 the rest of my life.’”
Ami concured and the two spent the next few years traveling the
continental United States, until 1983 when they sold their few belongings
and booked passage for them and their two boys, Matt, then 3, and Joshua
(who goes by Bam), then 1. Their first Alaskan winter, cold weather left
them stranded on an island approximately 50 miles from the city of
Wrangell for 18 months. By the time a skipper came upon the family and
offered them a ride to the nearest town, Billy and Ami had grown
accustomed to their new life and chose to stay. Over the next 20 years,
the couple welcomed five more kids—sons Bear, Gabe, and Noah, and
daughters Bird, and Rain—while remaining in rural Alaska.

When producer first approached the family of nine about doing a reality
show after reading one of Billy’s self-published autobiographies, it took
some convincing to get the Brown children on board. But soon the entire
clan was watched by more than 5 million viewers who became enthralled
in the family’s life “off the grid.” Their life away from the marvels of
modern living and medicine were hard on the Browns: Aside from injuries
they all endured while living in the bush, Ami’s dental health was always
a point of concern, and Billy began experiencing seizures and having
heart and muscle issues.

In the spring of 2017, the family relocated to Southern California while
Ami was treated for advance lung cancer. Defying the
“3 percent chance of survival” she says she was given by doctors, Ami
was in remission by late 2018 and the family began to establish their life
on a new homestead in rural Washington state. It was there that Billy’s
health issues became more frequent. “Alaska beat the crud out of me,”
the patriarch said to People in 2019, detailing the injuries he’d sustained
after years of pushing himself to the limit: a detached muscle in his arm,
a torn meniscus, lungs that are “about gone” after years of pursuing
diving without any scuba gear. “I’ve had such an active life and I’ve done
so much with my own hands and been proud to do it. It’s really hard to
back up now and sit on the sideline,” Billy added. “I’m not ready for a
porch yet. Don’t go putting me on a porch yet,” he continued, before a
pause. “I probably am, I just won’t admit it.” And though some of the
Browns were already living off the family property, the next generation
had already begun to do the heavy lifting to keep “Browntown” going.
“It’s good to be strong enough to do what your parents did for you
when you were young,” Bear said in that 2019 People story.
“[You] look out for them like they looked out for you.”


Billy’s life in the spotlight was not without scrutiny—the family faced
accusations of faking their lifestyle for TV; his strained relationship
with a daughter from a previous relationship was always a point of
drama for fans; and in 2015, he and Bam pled guilty to lying about
their residency in order to receive the yearly oil revenue checks given
to Alaska residents—but the 68-year-old ultimately leaves behind a
growing legacy of wilderness lovers, as Bear and fiancée Raiven Adams
welcomed the family’s newest addition, son River, last year. Billy also
leaves behind a massive and rabid fanbase who grew to know the
patriarch over the past 12 seasons of Alaskan Bush People.

“We are devastated to hear of Billy Brown’s sudden passing,” reads a
statement released to The A.V. Club from Discovery Channel. “He has
been part of the Discovery family for years - a trailblazer, a lovely man
and most definitely one of a kind. Our heart is with his family and those
that knew him and loved him as they deal with this devastating loss.”