Dorothy Jean Fitzgerald Brown

1927 - 2010

Dorothy Jean Brown, an educator who as a child unknowingly began the arduous civic process which became what is widely regarded as the first landmark civil rights case, and for more than three decades taught within the Vallejo City Unified School District, died after a lengthy illness Tuesday evening at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center. She was 83 years of age.

As a young girl in Topeka, Kan., Dorothy began singing at the age of five in Church of God in Christ services throughout the city. She was so little that the pastors used to stand her on a small chair so that the parishioners could see her.

Later, she and her cousin, Jean Williams, walked miles to segregated elementary schools out of their neighborhood. This angered their uncle, Attorney Charles Bledsoe, so much that the two little girls were the catalyst for his filing of the original paperwork for what would become the landmark 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case.

Bledsoe became the lead counsel in the legal team that eventually would include Thurgood Marshall. Dorothy was also the first African American to be a member of the Glee Club at Topeka High School and subsequently the first African American soloist for a Topeka High School Commencement in 1945.

Born in 1927 to Mr. Orville Fitzgerald and Mrs. Lessie Mae Fitzgerald, Dorothy wanted to become an educator from the time she was a child, and often spoke of how she would arrange her dolls and teddy bears to teach them various lessons as a little girl. She would later attend Washburn University on a vocal performance scholarship and receive her Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1949.

After briefly moving to Fresno, Calif., she relocated to Vallejo when she heard of job openings and was hired over the weekend to report on Monday morning.

In Vallejo, she taught elementary education at several schools and also was moved with the greatest facility into school pageant production and choral director. She was well loved and would often sing her commands to her students like "Please sit down" in a beautiful and sweet second soprano voice.

While attending Church at All Nations Church of God in Christ in Vallejo, Calif., she met and eventually married Lewis F. Brown. In 1956, she worked tirelessly and diligently to help elect him as Solano County's first African American-elected official and Brown later became Solano County's first African American attorney at law.

In 1972, Dorothy contacted several of her sorority sisters throughout the area and spearheaded the quest for a local chapter of the first sorority of African American women. The chapter, which is now Kappa Beta Omega, honored her by naming her their first Basileus.

Kappa Beta Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority annually presents one of the largest cotillions for young women, "Fashionetta," which every November presents young debutantes throughout the area and is in its 33rd year.

She was also a founding member of the Solano County Chapter of The Links Incorporated, and a member of The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, a worldwide honor society for women in education.

Perhaps her most cherished gift was her membership in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, gifted to her by her husband and sons for Christmas 1987.

Dorothy received her Master of Education degree from Sonoma State University in 1975 in early childhood development and worked closely with various scholarship funds and education projects until shortly before her death.

As a founding member of Rescue Mission Church of God in Christ with her husband and dear friends Elder Moses Tyson and his wife, Billie Jean Tyson, she helped establish a scholarship fund for local young people to attend college.

She was one of the chairs of the National Education Foundation Scholastic Motivation Ministries for the International Church of God in Christ. She also served on the Mothers Board and at the time of her death was the Church Mother Emeritus for Rescue Mission Church of God in Christ.

Dorothy is survived by her loving husband of 54 years, Lewis F. Brown; her sons, Lewis and Orville (Ricky) Brown; her grandchildren, Lathan, Jasmine, Lewis, Deja' and Giovanni; and her brother, Arnold of Flint, Mich.; and a host of relatives and dear family friends.

At her death Dorothy was a Ph.D. candidate who was preparing to work as an educational consultant focusing on the empowering of young women and men to be entrepreneurs as well as scholars. She believed that "anything you do, you can do it better with an education."

Wake services will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, May 14, at Rescue Mission Church of God in Christ, 2701 Tuolumne St., Vallejo. Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 15, at Old Path Miracle Cathedral Church of God in Christ, 500 Arkansas St., Vallejo.

Arrangements by Dan Scales Funeral Services Incorporated, 107 West 8th Street, Pittsburg, CA 94565.