Pauline Virginia Brown

Our loving, Christian mother, Pauline Virginia Brown, who touched so many lives with her sweet kindnesses and generosity, went home to be with the Lord Tuesday, December 18, 2007. Mrs. Brown was born Pauline Virginia Alford in Gatesville, Texas, February 18, 1923. She was the daughter of John A. Alford and Bessie Adams Alford. Mrs. Brown attended Gatesville High School and McLennan Community College. She worked devotedly and tirelessly at Hillcrest Baptist Hospital for 37 years, mainly on Floor 3-B. In a memo sent from Linda Carron of Hillcrest to Barbara Miller, J. Bruce Eady, Jaqueline Yoder, and Jeannie Dickerson of Hillcrest in 1995, a testimonial of her hard work was given by those she worked with. It read, "We would just like to let you know that Pauline Brown is one of the best employees here on night shift. She works with us as a unit assistant and she outworks every other one we have ever had. She is always courteous to staff and patients alike. She deserves to be commended for her wonderful attitude and her hard work. Please try to give her the recognition she so richly deserves. If there is an employee of the year, we would all like to nominate her." Indeed, a nurse who knew Ms. Brown stated that "all the nurses at Hillcrest would fight over who would get to work with Ms. Brown at night since she got things done, did not need direction, and they knew they could always depend on her to get the job done with true compassion for all their patients' care needs. Ms. Brown retired from Hillcrest Hospital in 2001. Indeed, our mother was hardworking all of her life and was entirely devoted to her family. She was as smart as they come, had a wonderful, cute sense of humor that kept us laughing and, Christ's love showed through her in that she was a loving, kind angel to so many. We could not have had a better mother. For most of our years while growing up, she was a Sunday School teacher and Vacation Bible School teacher at Concord Baptist Church in Bellmead and brought us up in the church and the Christian faith which is to her dear credit and for which we, as her children, will be eternally grateful to her. During her last months she lived with her devoted daughter Linda Light at 612 Wilson Road in Bellmead where it was Linda's greatest honor and reward in life to care for her mother and enjoy with her the precious days toward the end of her life. Ms. Brown will be greatly missed by all; but her family knows and is comforted by a Bible verse Ms. Brown believed in in 2nd Corinthians, namely, "We walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident that to be absent from the body is to be with present with Christ." Ms. Brown was preceded in death by her youngest brother, John Alford, Jr., of Arlington, Texas, her parents John and Bessie Alford of Waco, Texas, and her loving husband Johnny Richard Brown of Waco. She is survived by her daughters, Linda Faye Light of Waco and Patricia Ann York of Ft. Worth, three grand daughters Danielle Langenbruch of Michigan, Andrea Stendle of Kentucky, and Christa Langenbruch of Kentucky and four great-grandchildren Hannah and Aidan Hemple of Michigan and Sara Joy and Josiah Stendle of Michigan. And Ms. Brown, who always loved animals and took care of them because she said they "couldn't make a living on their own," is survived by her devoted, loving, little, white poodle, "Peanuts," who she loved so much and who, in turn, cared for her and never left her bedside. A short funeral service officiated by Pastor Jimmy Adams of Calvary Baptist Church in Bellmead will be held in the Chapel at Wilkerson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home at 2:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon, followed by burial at Oakwood Cemetery in Waco, with visitation Friday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. at Wilkerson-Hatch-Bailey at 6101 Bosque Boulevard. The family invites you to leave a message or memory in our "Memorial Guestbook" at www.wilkirsonhatchbailey.com. The family wants also to express its deepest gratitude to all of those at Hillcrest Hospital and Hillcrest ICU who cared so lovingly for our mother.