Martha Ann Brown

Martha Anne Brown, lovingly known as Marty, departed this life on December 9, 2010 after a brief but courageous and optimistic battle against cancer. Marty began composing her own obituary on August 26, 2010. Following are her words: Born on July 12, 1948 in Baltimore, Maryland, Martha Anne Brown was the seventh child of the late Thomas and Geraldine Brown. All of her brothers and sisters were older when she was born; consequently she was the baby of the family or “the last button on Job’s coat.” She was educated in the Baltimore City Public School System, having entered kindergarten in 1954, the same year that the landmark “Brown vs. the Board of Education” decision was handed down. Although she was going through school at a time when United States schools were being desegregated, her parents wanted her to continue the family tradition of attending Frederick Douglass Senior High School. At Douglass High, Marty as placed in the college preparatory class (the number one class at Douglass!) and was reunited with many of her elementary schools classmates. It was also Douglass that Martha began her fervent love of history, which was inspired by her beloved homeroom teacher, Mrs. Barcella Blow. Upon graduation from Douglass, Martha entered Morgan State College, now Morgan State University. After graduating from Morgan, Marty taught for five years in the Baltimore City Public School System: two years at Hampstead Hill Jr. High and three years at the brand new Paul Lawrence Dunbar Senior High, where her sister Julia B. Woodland (now deceased) was the principal. While Marty’s writings end here, her story continues with so many more rich and rewarding experiences. Undoubtedly none were more important to her than the 1978 birth of her beloved son Edward R. Brown, to whom she was fiercely devoted up to her death. Marty also enjoyed a career of over a decade in national and local television news. It would not be unusual to see a local news personality or two or three at one of Marty’s parties. A most cherished possession of hers was a letter of introduction and job reference written for her by Oprah Winfrey. In fact, until recently Marty was the proud owner of a pair of purple cowboy boots which were owned by Oprah Winfrey, that is, until Marty charmed Oprah into giving them to her during their time together at Baltimore’s WJZ TV. Marty was eventually led back into the classroom in the Baltimore City School System. History and teaching, she found, were her lifelong passions. She taught in a number of the city’s most challenged schools, even inspiring a group of students to place in a Maryland History Bee. At the time of her death, Marty was back home, teaching history at Frederick Douglass High School, from which her own passion for history was first cultivated. There is no doubt that like Marty’s beloved Mrs. Blow, there is some student of Ms. Martha Anne Brown’s, past or present, whose life path will be forever inspired by our beloved Marty. Her infectious smile, her fiery debates or world history and current events, her eternal optimism and hope for brighter days, her joy in the antics of Pooch and Puppy…all these things and so many more will be missed by the host of family and friends, who along with beloved son Eddie, she leaves to rejoice in her life well lived. Among the papers and instructions that Marty left behind in preparation for her homegoing, she wrote, as only the pragmatic Marty would, “So now I’m dead, what’s next?” Certainly, during the recent times of her rededicated membership at Metropolitan United Methodist Church, she had to come to know full well the answer to this question. What’s next dear Marty? Everlasting life. The mansion has been prepared just for you. No more pain. Rest in God’s eternal peace.

Tributes

Martha Ann Brown

July 12, 1948 - December 9, 2010