The man most responsible for the Casa Linda Shopping Center and the surrounding neighborhoods died Sunday. Herschel Brown, 89, graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1938 and attended TCU before returning to his family farm in what is now the Casa Linda Estates neighborhood and the Casa Linda Shopping Center at Buckner Boulevard and Garland Road. Brown and his father, Carl, eventually turned the 256-acre farm into one of Dallas’ first shopping centers and presided over the annexation of the area by the city of Dallas in 1945. Brown was active with a number of service and civic organizations over the years, including the State Fair of Texas and the East Dallas Chamber of Commerce, of which he was a founding member. His family also donated a building to the Chamber across the street from the Highland Park Cafeteria in Casa Linda. Funeral services will be Friday, May 28, at 10 a.m. at Sparkman-Hillcrest Funeral Home; in lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be directed to The State Fair of Texas Scholarship Fund.