Emily Campbell Brown, 88, died February 2 in Mansfield Ohio. Like many great Americans she was known to many in her community but not much outside of it. While she will receive some attention for the fact that her son Sherrod is the junior senator from Ohio, her own achievements in life merit paying her final attention. In honor of her, I am posting my first diary at Daily Kos.
Emily's life was fueled by her faith, her love of her family, and her passion for social justice and racial equality. Born in Mansfield Georgia, she grew up in a farming community hit hard by the Depression. Her father was nonetheless able to send her to college, and afterward, she began a career as a schoolteacher.
During WWII she came to work in Washington at the Foreign Economic Administration. During the war she met a physician-serviceman from Mansfield Ohio, Dr. Charles Brown. They married after the war and settled in his hometown.
There she raised a family of three boys and participated in causes related to her husband's work, such as chairing the local Mother's March on Polio campaign. But over time she grew increasingly active in the YWCA as an institution devoted to promoting social justice. She served in the leadership of the YWCA, first in Mansfield, then throughout Ohio. She was a delegate to three national YWCA conventions and also a delegate to the 1972 YWCA National Convocation on Racial Justice in New York. She was on the board of the Mansfield Inter-Church Council, served as vice president of the Ohio Hunger Task Force and, along with her husband, helped found the Richland County chapter of Habitat for Humanity and served on its board.
All three of her sons became active in public service; her son Sherrod (named after her father) first ran for office in Ohio in 1974, with his mother campaigning actively for him, as she would for the rest of her life. During his successful campaign for the US Senate in 2006, she met Bill Clinton at one event. He told her that she must be proud of her son, and she replied, "I am proud of all my sons." Clinton laughed and said his mother would have said the same thing. She campaigned as well for son Charles when he ran successfully for West Virginia Attorney General in 1984. Her son Robert never ran for elective office, but has served in a variety of state and federal government posts.
It is significant that her commitment to the Democratic party predated her sons' involvement; she loved to tell campaign audiences about her first vote for president in 1944, for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She was an elected member of the Mansfield City Charter Review Commission and a Richland County Democratic Party Committeewoman, serving on the party’s central and executive committees. In 2007 she played a major role in helping elect Mansfield’s first African-American Mayor, Donald Culliver. She nurtured young people and encouraged them to get involved in politics, and her counsel and support were much sought after. In 2007 the Richland County Democratic Party established the Emily Brown Young Democrat Award in her honor.
Emily Brown understood, however, that the most important jobs in politics were some of the most thankless. During the 2004 Presidential campaign, she loaded a card table into the back of her car, set it up every day in front of a local grocery store, and registered more than 1,000 new voters. This was eight months after she shattered her shoulder in a fall and had to undergo reconstructive surgery. In 2008, while co-chairing the campaign committee for the local senior services levy, she also found time to work regularly at the Richland County Democratic Headquarters.
On a personal level, she was a gem. Sparkling and vivacious, she maintained her Southern charm to the end. She had a warm and witty sense of humor and genuine curiosity about almost everything in life. She was kind and supportive, but unwilling to accept anything but one's best efforts. On her computer desktop was an icon for Daily Kos; I don't know if she ever registered here, but it was typical of her keeping up with the times and appreciating a great community, for Emily's life was about fostering community. I feel so honored to have known her and to have had the benefit of her love and wisdom. (In the interests of full disclosure, I was related to her by marriage, but did not meet her until she was already over 80 years old). She had a deep Christian faith and I take comfort in her belief that at her life's end she would be reunited with her large family and late husband. Godspeed Emily!
UPDATE
The Daily Kos community has been so kind with the lovely tributes to Emily. Many thanks for putting this first diary on the rec list; she would have been a bit embarrassed but delighted! I will let Sherrod and the rest of the family know about all of your wonderful comments.