Fannie O. Brown was born on August 12, 1846, in Winchester, Virginia, to Oliver Brown and Susan Baker. Her father was a bank officer who owned $20,000 of real estate and $6,700 of personal property by 1860. She grew up and attended school in Winchester. She never married, and she remained in her parents’ household until at least 1870. By 1900, she was living with her sisters, Emma and Nelly, in Winchester. She died there of pulmonary tuberculosis on August 28, 1917.