Brown, Mary Alice Perry (Mrs. Paul M.)
12/4/1939
March 3, 1868 - December 4, 1939 |
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| Mrs. Mary Alice (Perry) Brown, devoted wife of the late Paul M. Brown, for many years a leading member of the Louisiana Conference, was born at Jackson, Louisiana, March 3, 1868, and passed to her rest and reward from the home of her son, Paul M. Brown, Jr., in Shreveport, December 4, 1939. Following services in Noel Memorial Church, conducted by Rev. F. M. Freeman, and accompanied by a large number of friends, her body was taken to DeRidder, where she was buried by the side of her husband, mother and son, Ellis, who bad preceded her to the better world. Along in the late eighties she met the brilliant and gifted Paul M. Brown, then a student in Centenary College. This meeting ripened into a beautiful romance, and on August 6, 189t, they were happily married. She entered whole-heartedly into this blessed ministry as the wife of an itinerant Methodist preacher. Along with her husband she went from appointment to appointment throughout the bounds of this Conference, and together they rendered a great service and made a lasting contribution to the cause of Christ in this State. In the untimely death of her youngest son, Ellis, who died in the service of his country during the great world war, she experienced the first great sorrow of her life. It was a sorrow from which she never quite recovered, and in her mother heart she carried throughout the remaining years the memory of this noble son. When a few years later her husband was laid by the side of this boy, their graves became to her a place of such tender memories that she was unwilling to leave them for any length of time. Mrs. Brown was educated in Natchez, Mississippi, and alter gradu-ation taught school in Louisiana and Texas. She never lost her interest in education, particularly Christian education. She found delight in earning to the aid of struggling young men, and today there~ are two ministers standing in Methodist pulpits, whom she helped with money and books to prepare themselves for their life’s work. In a very true sense this good woman will live on in the lives of those to whom she was privileged to minister back through the years. She knew how to serve and to suffer. In both she shared in full measure. She knew the meaning of sorrow, loneliness and physical pain. But through it all she can-led on in a beautiful spirit, patiently waiting for the release for which she longed. In her seventy-first year, weary in mind, tired in body, she gave up the struggle—to be with those who had gone on before. During her last illness she was tenderly cared for by her son and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Paul M. Brown, Jr., who, by day and by night, did everything possible to bring her comfort and make the crossing a little easier. Mrs. Brown is survived by two sons, S. Perry Brown, of Beaumont, Texas, and Paul M. Brown, Jr., of Shreveport, Louisiana. These two sons of the parsonage occupy responsible positions in the Church and in the business world. A good woman, a true wife, a devoted mother has gone to her eternal home. |
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| Source: Journal of the Louisiana Conference of the Methodist Church, Pages 93-94, 1940 by F. M. Freeman. | |
