Jacan Brown had friends across the county and across the state she had never met.

“She probably had many friends she had never seen eye to eye,” said Effingham County Recreation and Parks Director Clarence Morgan, “just from people calling the office. She loved people and she loved being on the phone. I kidded her about being ‘the phone queen.’”

The personable and dedicated administrative assistant at the Effingham County Recreation and Parks died suddenly Monday morning. Brown would have celebrated her 24th anniversary with the ECRP on July 16.

“She was the backbone, the pillar,” Morgan said of Brown. “Words cannot describe what she meant to the recreation department. To me, I’ll never replace her, never, never replace her.

“She was super dedicated to me. My wife called her my second wife,” Morgan added. “What we do without her, I don’t know. One person can’t replace her.”

Brown was also a fixture at community political forums, often drafted to serve as the timekeeper.

“She enjoyed the limelight,” Morgan said.

The ECRP closed its offices Monday and its Web site — www.effinghamrec.org — has been turned into a tribute to Brown.

“She was just a rock,” Morgan said. “She was super organized and super thought of in the community.”

Brown is survived by her husband Isiah and three children, Zachary, Ashley and Deion Duncan. Visitation for Brown will be held tonight at the Effingham County Recreation and Park gym on Highway 119 in Springfield from 6-8 p.m.

Two scholarship funds in Brown’s honor are being set up at Citizens Bank, one for an Effingham County High School cheerleader going to college and another for the godson Brown took in and raised as her own. Brown has been caring for the young boy, Deion, for the last 4 1/2 years.

Brown met the boy’s mother in the beauty shop one day, according to Morgan. “She didn’t know her from Adam’s housecat,” he said.

The boy’s mother allowed him to go home with Brown on weekends. Eventually, Morgan said, that time became longer and longer.

When Morgan decided not to retire from his position as ECRP director, Brown told him it was the best day of her life.

“She said, ‘I needed you to help me raise that young’un,’” Morgan recalled.

Brown missed one of Deion’s school functions because she said she had to work but Morgan chastised her about it.

“Don’t you ever miss another one,” he said he told her.

Morgan said Brown cared for people but if you rubbed her the wrong way, she let you know it.

“You may never get out of her doghouse,” he said. “But she would say, ‘whether  you did me wrong or right, I’m still going to do for you.’”