Beverly Jean Emmett Brown's Obituary
Beverly Jean Emmett Brown’s love of life and people and the joys of this earth was apparent in everything she did across her 97 years. Her longevity was no accident – God knew that the life of the party needed to stick around as long as possible.
Born almost a century ago on June 25, 1928, in Austin, Texas to Jennie Joseph and Sam Emmett, Beverly was a charmer from day one. Her older and younger sisters Eleanor and Sybil could always count on her to make an errand into an adventure, or a chore into a game. The family lived in New Orleans, where she attended an all-girls Dominican Catholic high school. At 16, she danced on a parade float during Mardi Gras. Even though very few of us witnessed this in person, it’s easy to picture Beverly up there beaming her smile to the crowd.
After high school she attended UT Austin as a geology major. But her most seismic college event was meeting the love of her life, James William Brown. On November 23, 1946, they eloped.
During their student years together, Beverly and Jim spent two consecutive summers working as fire lookouts on a remote mountain in Glacier National Park, Montana. Most of us have seen the photos, but the reality must have been even more majestic and romantic.
Those weeks on the mountain bonded Beverly and Jim for life. They also stockpiled the stories that they would tell their future family for decades to come – such as the time they startled a mother grizzly bear and her cub on the slopes of Swiftcurrent Mountain. Fortunately, Jim and Bev jumped into action and hoofed it to safety, otherwise some of us might not even be here today.
In 1949 they moved to Dallas and bought a home on Ballycastle Drive. Beverly worked for a while in the glove department at Sanger Brothers, but her deeper calling was to be a matriarch. The next year they welcomed the first of three sons, James. Their joy was interrupted months later when Jim was called to serve in the Korean War, but after he returned home safely the family continued growing. Their second son Britt was born in 1953, and their youngest son Jeff in 1956.
Beverly’s own interests and talents continued to grow as well. She became an accomplished tennis player, and golfer. She took up painting and developed a real gift for watercolor and oil paints. Her still lives of birds, flowers, and fruit hang on many a Brown family wall. One of Beverly’s other legendary skills was in the kitchen. Her Lebanese cooking is spoken of in hushed tones throughout north-central Texas by those lucky enough to have tasted it.
But for Beverly it was less about the cuisine than the chance to gather, laugh, and spend time with family and friends and extended kin. It’s a legacy the rest of us should, and will, continue to carry.
Beverly’s life was long and rich. She was a member of the Dallas Woman’s Club, the Penny Ante Investment Club, and the Northwood Club. She was an avid reader. She drove a beautiful Jaguar for years and collected Hermès scarves. She oversaw an uncountable number of kids' pool parties at her and Jim’s wonderful home on Douglas. Lore has it that Beverly even ran a hearing aid company at some point in the 1950’s, although the details have been lost to history.
What will never be lost, however, is Beverly’s one-of-a-kind warmth. She radiated it daily, to everyone her life touched. We should all count our blessings that she shared it so freely, with such heart, for so long.
Beverly herself often said that, when her time came, she didn’t want her loved ones to mourn too much – because she was the lucky one, for having lived a life as full and colorful and expansive as anyone could hope for. Let’s remember her in that spirit of grace and gratitude today. Beverly is preceded in death by her sister Eleanor Malouf, her loving husband of 70 years Jim, and her eldest son Jimmy.
She is survived by her sister Sybil Tucker, her son Britt (and wife Elizabeth), her son Jeff (and wife Kelly), her daughter-in-law Lynne, eight grandchildren, nine great grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews who loved her dearly.
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Wounded Warriors, Saint
Jude’s, or the Red Cross.
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