On Nov 3, 2025, Cobby went to heaven, fingers crossed, most likely with a layover in Purgatory (if you know what I mean). Wherever he is, you know he’s having a good time, a Genny in one hand and a smoke in the other. In the end, it’s not the years in your life but the life in your years, and Cobb lived each day on his own terms and left us too soon.
He was born on November 24, 1963 (the day Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, he would point out), to Robert J. Browne Jr. and Katherine Gorham Browne. The youngest of seven children, he learned at a very young age how to fix all the broken hand-me-downs with whatever was on hand. This led his mother to bestow on him the nickname Cobb, adding “it may not look pretty but it works.” The name and talent followed him throughout his life. He could fix just about anything as long as it had some fix left in it.
He attended St. Paul’s school, where frequent escapes from the playground to the family’s Summit Street home were well documented and dealt with by writing 50 times on the blackboard “I will not…” He also attended Norwich Junior and Senior High School.
He was a saint by no means, but you should consider yourself blessed if you got to know him. He was all about his family, his friends, and loyalty.
Cobb is survived by his daughters, whom he loved dearly, Samantha Jade Browne, his leap year baby, and Tara Elizabeth Browne AKA David Letterman; as well as the mother of his daughters, Nancy Taranto; and his sisters Susan Browne, Marsha Bates, and Cindy Browne. He was predeceased by his parents and his brothers, Randall J. Browne, Robert J. Browne III, and his sister Kathleen Rasmussen Browne. He leaves behind many friends, loved ones, and acquaintances, including his best friends John Hildebrant and Mike George — as well as Keith, Mick and Ron, the surviving members of the Rolling Stones — the greatest Rock ’n’ Roll group of all time!