Dorothy Brown

On Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Dorothy Fay Brown passed away peacefully in her home in Hot Springs, Arkansas where she spent the last 30 years of her life. Fay was born in humble circumstances in Indian Bayou, a small farming community in south Louisiana. Her father, Jesse Thomas Perry, Sr, was a rice farmer and her mother, Dollie Spell Perry, was a schoolteacher. Dot, as her friends and business associates affectionately called her, was delivered into the world in a small two-bedroom house with no electricity, no running water, and no indoor facilities. She overcame these poor conditions and graduated as the Valedictorian of Indian Bayou High School in 1950, where she participated in various organizations and activities, one of which was a standout player on the basketball team. After high school, Fay attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now the University of Louisiana Lafayette) and graduated with honors and a double major in 1954. Dot participated in various on-campus activities including the Theater Group, where she acted in many plays, and the Debating Team, which went to the national debating championships in her senior year.

After graduation, Dot moved to Lake Charles and taught for one year at Lake Charles High School, after she would split her time between working for the Louisiana Head Start Program as an education coordinator and KAOK Radio in Lake Charles. She worked at KAOK for several years, where she met her future husband, Ray Brown, who was a disk jockey and later moved into management. Dot and Ray moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where Ray was the Sales Manager and later became Station Manager at KARK TV station. As part of Ray’s position at a major NBC TV affiliate, they traveled extensively throughout the United States and Europe, particularly to Las Vegas, New Mexico, Hollywood, and her favorite place Switzerland for many NBC premiers as part of the numerous sales awards that Ray earned at KARK. They lived in Little Rock, where they sometimes saw Governor Bill Clinton jog by and stop at the McDonald’s just a few blocks up from the apartment complex, where they lived and owned, until Ray’s untimely death in 1995. Shortly thereafter, Dot moved to their lake house on Hamilton Lake in Hot Springs, where she lived out the final 30 years of her life.

Although Dot left the teaching field after only a year or so and never had children of her own, she never truly quit educating and teaching. After she moved to Arkansas, Dot earned a master's in education from University of Arkansas Little Rock, in August of 1980.

In 1980, Dot started her own business entitled Early Childhood Services, Inc. This business would allow her many opportunities working with the state's early childhood professionals and many others states that were members of the Southern Early Childhood Association. These opportunities include but not limited to developing early childhood curriculum for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers, developing the Kindergarten Readiness Calendar, being highly involved in the Child Development Associate Credential for the state of Arkansas, and serving on many boards within the Early Childhood community. She maintained her corporation until 2024 when her mobility made it nearly impossible to continue with her work. In addition to her education activities for the state, Dot was an active board member of the First United Methodist Church Child Development Center of Hot Springs by providing her personal expertise, monetary support, and leadership qualities to their program. She considered the childcare center a source of great pride, both through her efforts personally and that of her chosen church, in particular. Her oversight and mentoring of teachers and supervisors in that program made her a valuable asset to her community, in general, and her church, in particular.

Dot was preceded in death by her parents, Jesse and Dollie Perry, her beloved husband, Ray, and her brother Jesse Thomas Perry, Jr. Those left to grieve her passing are her two brothers, Gerald and Byron (Carolyn) Perry, and many nieces and nephews, who will miss their annual July 4 weekend at their favorite “Aunt Fay’s” lake house, and her many friends garnered over the years. She will be missed.

An inurnment will be held on a later date in Louisianna.