Frank Britton BROWN

     Frank Britton BROWN, son of Francis Horatio BROWN and Frances May ABNEY, was born on 20 January 1918 in Maplesville, Chilton County, Alabama. In his adult years Frank was also known to his family as "Big Frank" to deferenciate him from his nephew, "Little Frank," who lived next door.

Frank Britton BROWN appeared on a census, enumerated 9 January 1920, in the household of his parents Francis Horatio BROWN and Frances May ABNEY in Macedonia, Chilton County, Alabama. He was one year old.¹ Frank began first grade in 1924, the year the new Maplesville High School was completed. When the Depression resulted in the closing of the schools in Maplesville, Frank transferred to Chilton County High School in Clanton and graduated from there in 1936.²

Frank Britton BROWN appeared on a census, enumerated 21 April 1930, in the household of his parents Francis Horatio BROWN and Frances May ABNEY in Maplesville, Chilton County, Alabama. Frank B. Brown was listed as a 12-year-old farmer. He was attending school.³ He then attended college at Alabama Polytechnic Institute in Auburn, majoring in Veterinarian Medicine, and left after one year in 1937. He remained an avid Tiger fan for the rest of his life.⁴

Frank was registered for the draft during World War II on 16 October 1940 while living in Maplesville, Chilton County, Alabama. He was 22 years old and employed by the Alabama State Highway Department in Alexander City, Alabama. He was discribed as 5' 10.5", 155 lbs., with brown hair, brown eyes, and a light complexion.⁵

After leaving Auburn, Frank worked for four years 1937-41) inspecting all phases of highway construction for the Alabama Highway Department. He then worked U. S. Corps of Engineers in Childersburg, Alabama inspecting layout of buildings and facilities for Du Pont Powder Plant. He made final inspection of all concrete forms before pouring concrete, verifying grade, line and proper location. He next worked 17 months 27 Aug 1942 to 7 Dec 1943 for Pan Am Airways in the Caribbean Islands supervising the placement of runway in Cuba and the Dominican Republic.He inspected completed jobs running physical tests on all materials used. He left there to enter the Army Air Force.⁶

Frank began military service at age 26 on 17 March 1944 in Fort Mcpherson, Atlanta, Georgia. As World War II began Frank was exempted from military service because of his valuable work with Pan Am, however when his brothers joined he chose to volunteer also. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served as a gunnery instructor training gunners for the B-17 and B-29 bombers. He served with the 286th Combat Crew Training School was stationed in Pyote, Texas. He gave instruction on turret gun operation to classes of 10 to 40 people. Courses covered sighting, switching, burst control, and flight expediency repairs to weapons and turrets. Assisted in range instruction giving practical demonstrations of classroom instruction.

He attended AAF Technical School in Ft. Myers, Florida and Laredo, Texas. He had 6 weeks of flexible armory school in 1944. Instruction included training and practice in the operation and maintenance of .50 caliber machine guns and the turret in which in which specialization was given. Special emphasis was place in the theory and use of deflection firing. Course also included practice in using gun cameras and in firing machine guns, both on the ground and in 16 to 20 hours of actual flying.

He was honorably discharged from the U. S. Army as a PFC 26 Mar 1946. He recieved AAF Crew Memmber wings, Good Conduct Metal, American Service Metal, World War II Victory Metal and qualified as Carbine Marksman and Pistol Sharpshooter.^7,8,9

After the War, in 1945, Big Frank, and his brother John, opened Brown Brother's Supply Company in downtown Maplesville. John Brown soon sold his share to his brother Abney and returned to the Highway Department. Frank and Abney Brown built a new store in 1951. The store remained in operation until Frank's death in 2003. Abney had retired a few years earlier. For over fifty years the hardware store served as a meeting place for the men of Maplesville, and you could nearly always find a group gathered near the front of the store, seated on boxes and upturned spools of wire or rope, playing checkers or discussing sports and politics. Frank and Abney were also partners in farming and raising cattle on the Old Abney Place.¹⁰

Big Frank never married, but dated Miss Edna Tucker for nearly fifty years. Edna served as county health nurse in Prattville for many years until she retired to her family home near Isabella. Frank's neices and nephews always viewed Edna as their aunt, and her family in turn adopted Frank. The pair loved to travel and visit sites around the Southeast. When asked why the pair never married, Frank just replied that he valued his freedom too much.

Late in his life macular degeneration caused Frank's eyesite to deteriate until he was nearly blind. He was offered a free device from the Veterans Administration that would allow him to read, but in typical fashion, Frank told them to give the expensive device to someone who could use it more. In spite of his condition he continued to drive every morning from his house into town to open the store. The road in front of his house was a busy one with fast moving traffic. Since his eyesite was too bad for him to see oncoming cars, Frank would turn off the engine, roll down the windows and listen for traffic. When he could hear nothing coming, he would quickly start the engine and pull out onto the road. He did not really need the little money the store generated, but he hated to deny his old friends the companionship the meeting place offered.

Frank Britton BROWN died on 28 February 2003 at Shelby Medical Center in Alabaster, Alabama, at age 85. He was buried on 2 March 2003 in Abney Family Cemetery, Maplesville, Alabama.

Frank's obituary was printed on 4 March 2003 in the Clanton Advertiser newspaper, published in Clanton, Alabama. It read: "Funeral services for Frank Britton Brown, 85, of Maplesville, were held Sunday, March 2, 2003 at Martin Funeral Home with Rev. Randy Tucker [Edna's nephew] officiating. Burial followed at Abney Cemetery. Born on January 20, 1918 to Francis H. Brown and Mary Brown (Abney), he died Friday, February 28 at Shelby Medical Center in Alabaster. Survivors include his brothers Thomas Abney Brown of Maplesville and George Knight Brown of Mountain Brook; nieces Charlotte B. Crow of Birmingham, Pat Taylor of Birmingham and Susan Brown of Atlanta; nephews Thomas A. Brown, Jr. of Montgomery, Frank Brown II of Maplesville, F. H. Brown of New Orleans and John K. Brown of Prattville."