My Daddy’s name is Jack Alan Brown. He shares that name with a son and a grandson; he also shares that name with an uncle (whose real name was Frederick Morgan Brown!). A less-know fact is that he shares that name with a brother.
Daddy’s parents were married in 1910; their first child (and only daughter) was born a year later; two years after that Kay was joined by a brother, Walt. And then, 11 years later, a brother named Jack was born.
In 1981 Grandma (May Ludwig Brown) gave me an old flower pot, and told me the story behind the pot. On March 3, 1924, a baby boy was born to Grandma and Grandpa; but within a day he was gone. The pot was the container which she used to place flowers at his grave, and she brought it with her when they moved to Oregon.
Linnea had the receipts for the grave in Babyland at Forest Lawn Memorial Park; and a certificate for money which Grandpa (Walter Blanchard Brown) gave in trust, with the income “to be used in the Perpetual Care, Preservation and Embellishment of Grave No. 539” in the Babyland Section. The deed to the lot is also with those records. Those records indicate that they were living at 724 E 75th Street in Los Angeles at that time.
With that information, I was able to contact current staff at Forest Lawn; and when we made our next trip to Eagle Rock, we visited Babyland at Forest Lawn in Glendale. The grave marker identifies him as Jack B. Brown. We do not know what his middle name was, but Daddy said he would guess that the middle name was ‘Blanchard’, since that was Grandpa’s middle name.
Grandma said she was devastated when told that she had smothered the baby; but that was not true, and they learned that he had a medical condition which led to his death. That knowledge played a direct role in saving Daddy’s life, when he developed similar symptoms at birth.
Three years later, Daddy weighed only 5-1/2 pounds at birth. Grandma said that within 24 hours he suffered convulsions and was hospitalized for X-ray treatment to shrink his thymus gland, which was pressing against his lungs. He was hospitalized for three days, and they stayed ‘in town’ until he was one month old. His birth certificate states that he was born at 713 E 75th Street in Los Angeles. Grandpa built a number of homes in that area; and Grandma’s parents (August & Delia Ludwig) were living at 708 E 75th, just across the street, where they were recorded in the 1930 Census. Those homes still exist, although most are no longer well kept. At this time, Grandpa was building houses as well as working at the Old Ranch; all that he accomplished was amazing. But that should be included in a post about him!
Grandma said when the month was up, she and Daddy returned to the Old Ranch near Neenach, in the northern part of the Antelope Valley. She noted that a forest fire raged around the ranch the next day, and she helped in fighting it! I found a Wikipedia article which quoted a Los Angeles Times article, dated August 24, 1927, concerning that particular fire:
AID SENT IN BRUSH FIRE : Blaze Unchecked on Ridge Route Hundred Men and Supplies Rush to Help 700 Already on Job Flames Advance to Three Points in Pine Canyon; No Lives Menaced.I would say that Daddy’s arrival was memorable in many ways!
On one of our journeys to Los Angeles, we met Daddy's cousin Loreen McKinnon (daughter of Grandpa's brother, Joseph Baker Brown). She gave me this portrait of him which she had saved all these years; she said that she called him her 'Baby Jack':
While ‘Jack’ was a name that was ‘new’ to the Brown family, I would say it has gotten plenty of use at this point; and my father has set a high standard in many ways, for the Jack Browns who follow him. We’ll hear more about that in another post!
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