Tribute to an old friend.

Living Long

“It's paradoxical, that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone.” Andy Rooney

“I am suffering from extreme old age!” Virginia Pounds Brown

My old friend, Virginia Pounds Brown, died on Memorial Day, just a few days short of her 98^th birthday. I knew her as Mary Virginia; she was my worst critic, but I loved and admired her anyway. If ever there was a woman ahead of her time, and ahead of the game, Mary Virginia was that woman. Born in 1916, she matriculated at Randolph-Macon and Vanderbilt, and worked as a librarian at the Birmingham Public Library and later, at Birmingham Southern College. She married Bestor Brown and together they opened Book-Keepers bookstore in Mountain Brook Village in Birmingham. Mary Virginia wrote books, too, both historical and fictional. She became interested in Alabama's native people while working on an Alabama History for young readers. After visiting a Native American Museum on the west coast, where there were no accounts at all of Alabama's native tribes, she came home and, together with her good friend and companion, Laurella Owens, wrote three books on the subject. Her final article was published in Alabama Heritage Magazine just last month.

It has been my privilege to know Mary Virginia Brown for the last dozen years. I am fortunate to have several 'older-woman' friends, who are teaching me what it means to be honorable and productive all of one's life, and how to live from one's soul without compromise. Mary Virginia was one who did not hold back when it came to voicing an opinion, and her opinions usually carried a punch. She once commented on my writing, saying that I should not quit my day job. She did not sugar coat her criticisms, nor do that most Southern of all female tricks, lie straight to your face—sweetly. She just handed you the facts as she saw them, and let the chips fall where they may. I respected her for that.

Sometimes, when a person dies, the memory of them fades away over time. I sincerely doubt that will happen for anyone who knew Virginia Pounds Brown. There will ever be a Mary Virginia-sized hole in the cosmos where she existed as one of a kind.

                                                         In the Spirit,

                                                              Jane