She was the seventh of nine children, five boys and four girls, born to Grady and Laura Murphy. She was raised on a self-sufficient farm that provided everything needed with the exception of finished metal goods, shoes, and gasoline. She and her siblings picked cotton, worked in the fields, milked cows, fed the livestock, and churned butter. She joined the Mount Moriah 1st Baptist Church as a child and was baptized in a creek that flowed through the family farm. She later joined the 1st Baptist Church of West Blocton and after marriage a number of Presbyterian churches. She married Alvin Brown in Birmingham, AL in September 1951. Her silk wedding dress was sewn out of an Army parachute by her sisters. Alvin had served in the 82nd Airborne Division and supplied the parachute. The Birmingham Post Herald newspaper carried the story with her picture in her wedding dress. Surviving are her only child, Denman (Janice) of Marietta, GA; three grandchildren, Rachel (Jason) Freeman, Cumming, GA, Deborah (James) Long, Huntsville, AL, and Sarah (James) Long, Lookout Mountain, TN: eight great-grandchildren, Kylie, Layne, Brodie, Evelina, Malcolm, Georgia, Elliott, and Charlotte; sister, Frances Hobdy, Birmingham, AL; and brother, James (Peggy) Murphy, Hernando, MS.
She was the seventh of nine children, five boys and four girls, born to Grady and Laura Murphy. She was raised on a self-sufficient farm that provided everything needed with the exception of finished metal goods, shoes, and gasoline. She and her siblings picked cotton, worked in the fields, milked cows, fed the livestock, and churned butter. She joined the Mount Moriah 1st Baptist Church as a child and was baptized in a creek that flowed through the family farm. She later joined the 1st Baptist Church of West Blocton and after marriage a number of Presbyterian churches. She married Alvin Brown in Birmingham, AL in September 1951. Her silk wedding dress was sewn out of an Army parachute by her sisters. Alvin had served in the 82nd Airborne Division and supplied the parachute. The Birmingham Post Herald newspaper carried the story with her picture in her wedding dress. Surviving are her only child, Denman (Janice) of Marietta, GA; three grandchildren, Rachel (Jason) Freeman, Cumming, GA, Deborah (James) Long, Huntsville, AL, and Sarah (James) Long, Lookout Mountain, TN: eight great-grandchildren, Kylie, Layne, Brodie, Evelina, Malcolm, Georgia, Elliott, and Charlotte; sister, Frances Hobdy, Birmingham, AL; and brother, James (Peggy) Murphy, Hernando, MS.
Gravesite Details
Interment 28 February 2022
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