Bridgewater Mom Bartends To Raise Funds For Late Son’s Mural

SOMERVILLE, NJ — Rosanne Brown will be serving up drinks on Wednesday night at Verve in Somerville to help raise funds for a mural that will be painted in honor of her late son, Raymond Willis Brown.

“I am very happy because a little bit of him will still be here,” Brown said of the mural as she choked up with tears. “I think he would be really happy to know that the artists are his best friends.”

The murals are part of an initiative Somerville approved on Sept. 17 to paint murals on the brick facades of buildings in the downtown retail district along Main Street. Two murals are already getting underway — one for Raymond Brown and another for Jerome Gonzalez, a talented graffiti artist who died in February while competing in a 24-hour endurance race in North Carolina.

Brown, who is Chief of Staff for Senator Kip Bateman, will be at Verve Restaurant, Bar & Bistro on Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m. with Bateman and two former New York Giants players Otis Anderson and Steven Baker.

All tips from the night will go towards funding the mural.

Raymond Brown graduated from Bridgewater-Raritan High School in 2002 and was “an artist, a self-taught musician and an art handler who found success and happiness within Miami's art community where he thrived among his beloved family of fellow artists,” according to his obituary.

In 2016, Raymond Brown was working on a giant mural project in October 2016 on the side of a high-rise building when the scaffolding gave out. Raymond died in the fall. His friend and fellow artist Douglas Hoekzema survived the fall.

Hoekzema will now be working with other artists to paint a mural on the side of the Redelico's Paint and Decorating Center building on West Main Street.

Those who can’t make it to the event but still wish to donate can send checks to Our Town Division check, a 501 C3 organization, PO box 220, Somerville NJ 08876. Donors can write Raymond Willis Brown’s name in the memo line.

(Images via Rosanne Brown)

Photo 1 - Raymond Willis Brown

Photo 2 - A rendering of what the mural dedicated to Brown will look like.

Photo 3 - Brown with his best friend Douglas Hoekzema

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