Cortez "Yoplait" Brown

His name started with a history lesson. 

His Mom, “Sis,” was flipping through the pages of her history book when she suddenly stopped and said, “Cortez, I really like that name.” She made herself a quiet promise: When I have a son, that is what I am going to name him. Years later, "Sis" kept her word. 

Cortez Brown was born on December 3, 1960, to Norman Brown and Florine Smalley in Los Angeles, California. 

Cortez graduated from Locke High School and went on to pursue a career at Total Pharmaceutical Care as Logistic Manager in Torrance, California. He was a dedicated employee who delivered pharmaceutical products to home care patients. He was a man who believed that knowledge was currency, and he spent his whole life making himself successful. Cortez accepted Jesus Christ as is Lord and Savior at a young age. 

Cortez married Georgette Foster on September 22, 1996, and from that union came the light of his life, Brittany Brown, a daughter he adored without condition or reservation. He also raised his beautiful daughters, Nichelle Brooks and Monique (Brooks) Green, alongside his wife, Georgette. Yoplait was a proud Grandfather of fraternal twin boys, Keeon and Kelsey Wiltz, as well as Jordan Green Jr., and Jackson Green. 

If you ever had the pleasure of being in a room with Yoplait, you understood within a few minutes that this was not an ordinary man. He possessed what the French call "je ne sais quoi" — that indefinable, magnetic quality that no one can quite explain. 

Yoplait was immaculate. Always. Not a wrinkle. Not a stain. Not a single hair out of place. It should be noted that he had an amazing head of hair, long and healthy. His wardrobe didn't just speak, it testified. His jewelry didn't just shine; it made a regal statement. 

Every car he owned looked like it had just rolled off the showroom floor, because to Yoplait, how you presented yourself to the world was a form of respect for yourself and for the people who were fortunate enough to witness it. Tall, well-built, and physically disciplined, he treated his body like the temple it was. He ate well. He moved daily. He understood something many people spend a lifetime trying to learn that excellence is a lifestyle, not an occasion. 

Yoplait could rattle off sports statistics with the precision of a seasoned commentator and the enthusiasm of someone who had a personal stake in every game ever played. Social Justice? Political science? Current events? Pull up a chair, because he had thoughts that were informed, articulate, and passionate. He never missed an opportunity to vote because he understood that democracy, like a good suit, only works when you show up for it. 

Yoplait was also the family historian, peacemaker and patriarch in motion. The camera always ready, the eye always sharp, provided the hundreds of photographs living in family albums across multiple households? He had an artist's eye and a documentarian's instinct: always watching, always capturing, always making sure the moment was preserved for someone who hadn't been born yet. 

At family gatherings, and really, anywhere people had the good sense to come together, Yoplait was the host extraordinaire. He made people feel welcome the moment they walked through the door because his humor didn't exclude. He laughed often, and he had a gift for finding the funny in the ordinary that made everyone around him feel a little lighter. 

Cortez lost his beloved mother, Florine Davis, when he was just seventeen years old, a loss that would have broken many young men. But his maternal aunt and uncle (Kenneth & Florine Edwards) raised him at a young age and into the role of Mother and Father without hesitation, loving him as their own until Florine known as Mother preceded him in death August of 2006 and Kenneth known as POP’s preceded him in death. Through Mother, Cortez understood early what love costs and what it's worth. 

His maternal grandmother, Mary Smalley, was a God-fearing, praying woman, and young Cortez was her faithful Sunday companion, seated right beside her every week. That early foundation never left him. Through every season of his life, Yoplait never neglected his personal commitment to church on Sunday mornings. Some things are non-negotiable. 

He loved Mother, and she delighted in the ways he celebrated her birthday and every holiday with extravagant gifts. Yoplait believed that the people he loved deserved to feel loved. He showed the same devotion and appreciation to his surrogate father, Pop’s Kenneth Edwards, who walked alongside him during some of the most critical seasons of his life. 

His aunts, Roberta Love and Annie Dickson, were instrumental in Yoplait’s early development, and he remembered their devotion in their later years. His Aunt Roberta, which he called the enforcer, nickname him Yogi Bear which family members call him still today (Yogi). His Aunt Annie was his faithful carpool companion on the long drives to Moreno Valley to visit Mother, and if you know anything about Yoplait, you know those cars rides were never short on conversation. 

Yoplait was a champion for the young and the gifted. He had an eye for talent, and he never missed an opportunity to call it out in the younger members of his family. His encouragement wasn't empty flattery; it was the kind that made you believe in yourself a little more than you did before he walked into the room. 

He leaves to cherish his precious memories, his loving and devoted wife Georgette Brown, three daughters Brittany Brown, Nichelle Brooks, Monica Green (Jordan),  and four grandchildren Keeon Wiltz, Kelsey Wiltz, Jordan Green Jr, Jackson Green, his baby sister Trinita Wilson, his nieces and nephews, Dannielle Dotson, Julian Justin Jones, Precious Mannon, John Pickering, Charles Pickering, Alexis Peterson, Gabriel Peterson and Erica Peterson, his cousins Orinjel Martin and Marilyn and Trina Love, one brother-in-law Tommy Foster, three sisters-in-law Mamie Foster, Sandra Foster, Zerlene Foster and a host of cousins and friends.