OBITUARY -- "BROWNIE MARY'

Examiner Staff Report

A candlelight vigil in memory of Mary Jane "Brownie Mary" Rathbun will be
held in the Castro District Saturday night.

The 8 p.m. memorial will be at the corner of 18th and Castro streets.

Ms. Rathbun, who provided marijuana-laced brownies to a generation of San
Francisco AIDS patients and was a pioneer in the medical marijuana movement,
died at Laguna Honda Hospital.

The immediate cause of death was bronchopneumonia, although Ms. Rathbun also
suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and osteoarthritis. She
had been hospitalized for several months after a fall at her Castro home.

Though she was arrested three times in San Francisco and Sonoma County on
marijuana charges, Ms. Rathbun eventually was honored with a "Brownie Mary
Day" in The City for her work with AIDS patients, particularly in the AIDS
ward at San Francisco General Hospital. A second memorial is being planned
for May 1 at Laguna Honda Hospital.