SF's iconic Brown twins face life apart S.F. PEOPLE Health woes, financial worries split up iconic pair

For once, the Brown twins are not in matching outfits. Marian B. is in hers, a leopard-print cowboy hat and car coat, but her sister, Vivian A., older by eight minutes, is in bedclothes at Davies medical center.

"My sister has Alzheimer's, so she has to have 24-hour care, because they're afraid she will go out and get run over or something," says Marian, offering a straight answer to the question everybody who sees her on the streets stops to ask. "Where's your sister?"

The identical twins, who have built themselves into a living San Francisco landmark of irrepressible inseparability, are now barely holding it together, at age 85.

"We don't look much alike anymore," Marian says, in a taxicab en route to visit Vivian at California Pacific Medical Center's Davies Campus. Her memory has been going for a year now, says Marian, who has been caring for her sister in the one-bedroom apartment on Nob Hill where they sleep in twin beds. But a slipping mind led to a slip and fall about a month ago. Vivian went to a doctor, who referred her straight to the hospital, where she has been ever since.

'Separated before'

"We've been separated before," Marian says, with a tone that would indicate it did not work out. "We taught school for three years. I taught in Hillsdale, Mich., and she taught north of St. John's, Mich."

Marian would like to bring her sister home to be among their 100 or more matching outfits. But she understands that's probably not practical. An assisted living facility would do, even if it means separate bedrooms. She would prefer that to the current predicament of taking a cab to visit her sister only twice a week, which is all she can swing.

"Thirty dollars round trip, I can't afford that. I'm not a millionaire," she says on a drive west from Nob Hill, her mood brightening by the block. She's unfamiliar with seat belts and needs assistance in freeing herself from the device and getting from cab to curb. But by the time she is at the front desk, she's wearing that familiar smile as she proudly announces, "I'm going to visit my twin sister, Vivian A. Brown. She's in Room 3208."

One half of the famed San Francisco twins, Marion Brown, 85, walks home walks home to the apartment on Pine Street on Monday Aug, 13, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. where she and her sister Vivian have lived for 30 years. Vivian Brown has fallen ill and has been in the hospital for the past month. less One half of the famed San Francisco twins, Marion Brown, 85, walks home walks home to the apartment on Pine Street on Monday Aug, 13, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. where she and her sister Vivian have lived for ... more Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close SF's iconic Brown twins face life apart 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

Vivian's interests are being represented by an attorney, but Marian says she has her own interest, which is to find a situation where the twins can be twins. Cost is a barrier. Their rent is $1,088 while all the options she's seen start at $2,000.

"I'm not going to get knee high in debt," says Marian, still a Midwestern pragmatist. "I'm not signing anything until I see the bare facts about the finances."

A relative living in San Diego came up to drive Marian around looking for alternatives, and they wound up in Foster City. "I was worn out by the time I got there," Marian says. "It took over half an hour." Besides, they aren't the Foster City Twins.

"People know us as the San Francisco Twins, and we want to finish up our lives here in San Francisco," says Marian. When they arrived from Michigan more than 40 years ago, she worked as a bank auditor, and Vivian was a legal secretary at an insurance agency. But at 5 foot 1 and 98 pounds, they were meant for bigger things. They've done 25 commercials, and Marian can fire off the names of their clients as if they were the lyrics to a Johnny Cash song.

"We've been on Reebok, IBM, Payless Drugstore, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Joe Boxer shorts, AT&T, Dell Computer, Atachi, Apple Computer," she says before stopping to take a breath. "We've been on 'The Richard Simmons Show,' the Tom Snyder show, the Vicki Lawrence show, the AM show, the PM show. Richard Branson flew us to London for Virgin Atlantic and took us on a shopping trip to Harrods."

'Waiting to see'

But the residuals dried up years ago. There isn't much demand for a single twin, so Marian is living on Social Security while protecting what little savings she has for a proper funeral and burial, the two sisters side by side.

"I don't know which way this is going to turn out," she says. "I'm waiting to see like everybody else."

Former Mayor Willie Brown has vowed to help and recommended donations be made to Jewish Family and Children's Services. The twins are Protestants, but it doesn't matter. The agency will help anyone and has done so for 162 years. It accepts donations through the San Francisco Emergency Assistance Fund ( www.jfcs.org). "We are grateful for the donations that have been made and are making sure the twins are being helped," says Barbara Farber, director of development at the agency.

One way to offer direct aid is to go by Uncle Vito's pizza at Bush and Powell any afternoon at 4 and offer to pay for Marian's daily meal, which costs $20, tip included. The restaurant always throws in a glass of wine.

For years, the twins have sat at the window table so they can watch the colorful new models of cars go by. "We had twin Oldsmobiles back in Kalamazoo," says Marian, referring to the place they grew up. "We tried dressing differently for six months. We didn't like that at all."

Dining alone, Marian has downsized to a mini pizza, from the small they normally split. But she hasn't downsized the chocolate cake for dessert.

"I'm eating the whole piece, which my sister and I used to split," she says with a laugh that doesn't last long. "I'm lonesome," she says. The only relief is the daily phone call to her sister's bedside.

"I say, 'This is a hug for you, Vivian, and that's a kiss,' and we both smack our lips on the phone," she says. "I see improvement, even over the phone."