The Brown Roots
Genealogy spoken here
CLARA LOVELLA BROWN
Clara Lovella Brown, 79, lost her battle with cancer on July 7, 2005.
Clara was born Jan. 10, 1926 to Earl and Della Brown
in Signal Mountain, Tenn. She moved to California in 1951 and to Ventura County
in 1979.
She married Joseph E. Brown on July 3, 1967. They
lived in the San Fernando Valley and then moved to Oxnard in 1977. She worked at
the Seabee Base and the Point Mugu base as a Barber and Clerk until 1992. When
she and her husband retired, they moved to West Jordan, Utah, and returned to
Oxnard in 2003.
She is survived by her husband, brothers Edward Brown
of West Valley City, Utah, and Wayne Brown of Pinellas Park, Florida.; sister,
Nora Brown of Oxnard; stepchildren Wade and Kathy; and many nieces and nephews,
including Richard, Linda, Diana, Marsha and of course, her number one, William
Peters.
Her friends and family are invited to celebrate
Clara's life from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday, July 15, at her home in Imperial Mobile
Home Park on South Saviers Road in Oxnard. For more information please call
1-805-271-9221. Internment will be in Murray City, Utah.
End of Obituary on 10 Jul 2005 at Oxnard, Ventura Co., California.
The Ventura Board of Supervisors adjourned in Memory of Clara Lovella Brown on 12 Jul 2005 with Certificate of Adjournment, Board of Supervisors, County of Ventura, California.
She was buried on 30 Jul 2005 at Murray City Cemetery, Murray, Salt Lake County, Utah.
Arkansas Gazette, March 23, 1936
ELTON MORGAN BROWN, 76, DEWITT MERCHANT, DIES
DeWitt, March 23.- Elton Morgan Brown, 76, one of Arkansas county's oldest merchants,
died at his home here this morning. He was born March 3, 1870, (sic) at Montgomery,
Ala., and moved to Arkansas County when he was only 19, in 1879. He first
worked for the government as a mail carrier. He moved to DeWitt from Stuttgart
in 1916 and served as County Treasurer from 1917 to 1921. Since then he has
owned and operated several businesses here. He is survived by his wife, two sisters,
Mrs. Zula B. Toole of Bainbridge, GA., and Mrs. Ona Pridgen of El Dorendo (sic),
GA.; three brothers, J. F and Carey Brown of Rohwer and Joe Brown of El Dorendo,
GA., five daughters, Mrs. E. M. Johnson of Almyra, Miss Nora Brown of Fort Smith,
and Mrs. I. A. Boschert, Mrs Edna Hudspeth, and Miss Annie Brown of DeWitt; four
sons, E. M. Brown of Portland, Ore., Fay of Austin, Texas., and Julian and Park
Brown of DeWitt and a stepson, W. P. Miller of DeWitt. Funeral services will
be held at 2:30 p. m. Tuesday by the Rev. A. C. Carrway at the First Methodist
Church. Burial will be in the DeWitt Cemetery
End of Obituary.
Obituary: From a Decatur County Newspaper
DEATH OF MRS. S. M. BROWN
Mrs. S. M. Brown passed peacefully away from this life Monday, November 14,
at 8 o'clock p. m.
Mrs. Brown, who was Miss Eldorendo Virginia Higgs, was born in Covington,
Ga., December 11, 1835.
She was left an orphan when only seven years of age and was raised by her
grandfather, Judge I. P. Henderson, who was for thirteen years State Agricultural
Commissioner of Georgia.
In 1853 she married Mr. S. M. Brown. She taught school in Alabama, and in
Miller, Baker and Decatur Counties in Georgia.
She instructed her school children with love. Her life seemed to lift others
with her, and to help the sorrowing along with their burdens.
Those who knew her best, loved her most, and her teachings and influence
will be long remembered in this community.
She was a member of the Baptist Church at this place, and was a devoted Christian,
a true friend, a loving wife and a tender mother.
Many join in sympathy to the aged companion with whom she journeyed along life's
road for more than fifty years, and to her six weeping children who will
see "mother" no more, until they see her in that beautiful home beyond.
She was nearly sixty nine years old, and tho it is lonely here without her
I am glad she is resting in a better home.
In the presence of many friends she was laid to rest Tuesday p. m. at 3 o'clock.
The funeral services were conducted by her pastor, Rev. E. D. Johnson, assisted
by Rev. J. M. Jackson
A Friend.
End of Obituary.
Obituary:
WILLIAM MAURICE BROWN
Obituary from the Miller County Liberal:
Julian C. Brown, age 81, of Eldorendo died Saturday, Feb. 6, 1992 in Miller
County Hospital in Colquitt.
He was born in Miller County on Aug. 12, 1910, but had been a lifelong resident
of Eldorendo. He was the son of Joe Brown and Lula Newberry Brown and was married
to Ruby Thomson Brown. He was a retired farmer and a member of the Eldorendo
Baptist Church.
Funeral services for Mr. Brown were held Monday, Feb. 10, at 2 p.m. at Eldorendo
Baptist Church in Eldorendo with the Rev. Thomas P. Long officiating. Internment
followed in the Eldorendo Baptist Church Cemetery. Mr. Brown's grandsons served
as pallbearers.
Survivors include his wife, Ruby Thompson Brown, Eldorendo; two sons, Aurthur
Carey Brown, Killeen, Texas, and John Joseph Brown, Atlanta; two daughters, Lorene
B. Rigdon, Statesboro, and June B. Rentz, Tallahassee, Fla.; one sister, Ollie
B. Yates, Louisville, Miss.; 18 grand children and nine great-grandchildren.
End of Obituary.
Obituary in the Miller County Liberal.
Ona Zula Jones, age 88, passed away at Tallahassee Memorial Regional Medical
Center in Tallahassee, Fla., Saturday morning, Jan. 12, 1991.
Mrs. Jones, the oldest child of the late Joe and Zula Brown Toole, was born
in Colquitt April 3 1902. She married William Roy Jones Dec. 25, 1922; they observed
their 68th wedding anniversary Christmas Day.
She was teaching in the Colquitt High School when she married; later she
and her husband taught in Baconton and Pine Hill schools.
She had resided in Tallahassee for 39 years; she was a homemaker and a member
of the East Hill Baptist Church and belonged to the church's Fidelis Sunday School
Class. In former years she was a member of the United Daughter's of the Confederacy
and the Women's Club, as well as various church organizations.
She was a talented musician; she possessed a lovely voice and was an accomplished
pianist. For years she sang in church choirs and served as pianist often for varied
and sundry occasions.
When she and her husband resided in Bainbridge, she was editor of the Decatur
County Advance, which her mother established, but the weekly newspaper was closed
out during Word War II.
Survivors include her husband, William Roy Jones Sr., one son, William Roy
Jones Jr., both of Tallahassee, Fla; three daughters, Jacquelyn Meadows, New
Market, Va.; Glorianne Richardson, Donaldsonville and Zula Marie Holland, Tallahassee,
Fla.; a sister, Willie Priest, Colquitt; 15 grandchildren; 22 great-grandchildren;
and a number of nieces and nephews.
The graveside services took place at 2 p.m. Monday afternoon, Jan 14, at
Tallahassee Memory Gardens. The rev. Ray Tindall and Dr. Len Turner officiated.
Culley's Meadowood Riggins Road Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
The family requested that in lieu of flowers, memorials be made to East
Hill Baptist Church, 912 Miccosukee Road, Tallahassee, Fla., 32304, or to a favorite
charity.
End of Obituary.
Ward 1 Alderman of the 1940s dies at age 82
By Kitty Chism
William A. "Bill" Springer, the outgoing, politically connected owner of several grocery stores
in North Little Rock in the 1940s and 1950s who served one term on the North Little Rock City Council,
died Saturday, Aug. 12, in Richardson, Texas, of emphysema. He was 82.
The third to the youngest of eight children of then Cato grocer Matthew Thomas Springer and his
wife Ada, he attended North Little Rock High School but dropped out after the 10th grade at the
height of the Great Depression and worked for a time as a salesman for Meyer's Bakery.
He would join the Army and be sent to the South Pacific during World War II, only to be injured hen his troop ship was sunk by enemy fire and the crew was rescued at sea.
He returned home in 1943 and purchased Melrose Grocery from his sister and her husband, Della
and Bob Green. Coincidentally the same year the young woman from Dumas who would become his
wife of 55 years, Margaret Pounder, bent on attending business school in Little Rock,
moved in with her aunt who lived a few blocks away from the store.
The story goes that she went into the store one day to buy a dozen eggs and he allowed as
how she couldn't carry those eggs all the way back alone - and walked her home. The two were
married on Dec. 23, 1944.
Three years later, Mr. Springer purchased the old Watson Grocery, then located in a faded,
wooden storefront at 18th and Main streets, which he quickly replaced with a streamlined
concrete building and a store that offered such "modern" amenities as a butcher shop, free
home delivery and charge accounts.
But even all of these services were not enough to compete once the supermarket chains with
self-service aisles and lower prices moved into town. In a few years, Mr. Springer gave up
the grocery business for a career in automotive equipment sales, though he did open Springer's
Market, a small bait shop and quick market on the Old Conway Highway for a short time in the late 1950s.
Eventually, however, his knack for selling tire changers and car jacks landed him jobs in
Oklahoma and then Dallas, where he lived for the remainder of his life and established his
own independent Springer Sales Co.
"He was gregarious, what can I say, he was a salesman," said his daughter Sherry Harper of Dallas.
Growing up, she also viewed him as an attentive father who liked to play jacks with her
on their front porch and took her, her mom and her younger brother over to Sunday night dinners
every week at his parents' house behind a grocery they eventually owned in Levy, where all his
brothers and sisters and their families would gather.
He was similarly attentive to keeping in touch with old friends, who include Henry Topf,
the longtime president of Twin City Bank, who Harper believes approached her dad about
running for a vacant Ward I alderman seat in 1947. He ran against L.W. Herscher and won
by one vote, according to a story in The Times of that day.
But he would find the politics of the post disillusioning, his daughter said, and he
did not choose to run for a second term. Still he was supportive when his brother
E.E. Springer ran several successful times for Ward 2 alderman, and he remained
interested in the political landscape - and an opponent of Bill Clinton - for the
rest of his life.
"His funeral was the day Clinton gave his speech at the Democratic Convention, and,
of course, none of us turned on the television that day," his daughter said.
"And I thought 'Daddy would do anything to keep people from watching him speak',"
she joked. "He did not like Clinton."
In his spare time, Mr. Springer was an avid horseman and raised several Tennessee walking
horses, which he kept at the old stable near where Fisher's Armory stands today. His pride,
his daughter recalls, was "Buttermilk Sky," a horse that won numerous trophies and ribbons
at shows around the state in the 1950s.
An avid hunter, Mr. Springer also loved dogs, raising mutts and hunting dogs when he
was a young man but falling in love with niniature dachshunds somewhere along the way.
He also loved North Little Rock, his daughter said, and his last journey back here
was 18 months ago for the annual homecoming at Cato.
"I think he always felt that North Little Rock was home," his daughter said.
He was preceded in death by one son, William A. Springer Jr., who died at nine
months of age; his brothers, Floyd, E.E., Leonard and Kelly; and his sisters,
Della Brown and Ruth Hemphill.
Besides his daughter and wife Margaret, he is survived by a son and daughter-in-law,
Donald and Susan Springer; five grandchildren, Matt and Holly Harper and Adam,
Will and Jessica Springer; and one sister, Grace Bahill of Cabot.
Funeral arrangements were by cremation, and burial was at the National Cemetery in Dallas.
The Times - September 14, 2000
(Thanks to contributor Edward L Williams for this biography.)
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