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Susie Ione Brown Waxwood

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Susie Ione Brown Waxwood
A young Black woman with light skin and straight dark hair, cut to jaw length with a deep side part
Susie Ione Brown, from the 1925 yearbook of Howard University
BornSeptember 12, 1902
Gray, Louisiana
DiedJanuary 30, 2006 (aged 103)
Plainsboro Township, New Jersey
Occupation(s)Philanthropist, clubwoman

Susie Ione Brown Waxwood (September 12, 1902 – January 30, 2006) was an American philanthropist and clubwoman, based in Princeton, New Jersey.

Early life and education

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Susie Ione Brown was from Gray, Louisiana, the daughter of John D. Brown and Elizabeth Saulsby Brown. Her parents were teachers; her father also worked in insurance. Her brother Russell Wilfred Brown was a medical researcher[1] and professor at Tuskegee Institute.[2] She went to high school in New Orleans. She graduated from Howard University in 1925, and was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.[3]

Career

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After college, in 1927, Brown was one of the charter members of Alpha Beta Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha in New Orleans, the first Black "Greek Letter" sorority in Louisiana. She later served as president of the chapter.[4]

After moving to New Jersey in 1935, Waxwood was involved with the Red Cross during World War II, and worked to integrate the organization's blood bank in the 1940s.[5] She was executive director of the Princeton YWCA from 1958 to 1968,[6] the branch's first Black director. She was acting executive director of the Montclair-North Essex YWCA from 1969 to 1971.[7] In 1998 she worked for the Princeton YWCA's endowment campaign.[8] The Princeton YWCA awards an annual Waxwood Lifetime Award, named in her honor in 1999.[9][10]

Waxwood helped found the Princeton Adult School and the Witherspoon Federal Credit Union. She served on the board of directors for the Princeton Nursery School, and was active with the Princeton Regional Scholarship Foundation. She was active in the NAACP Legal Defense Fund,[11] and a charter member of the Central New Jersey chapter of The Links.[12][13] She was named Soroptimist Woman of the Year in 1977.[14]

Waxwood was active in the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church beginning in 1942. She was ordained as an elder and was president of the Women's Association. She helped start the Princeton Crisis Ministry there. She represented New Jersey at the White House Conference on Aging, and she chaired the Mercer County Office on Aging.[15][16] An apartment complex was named the Waxwood after her husband, at the site of his former school, and she attended the dedication.[17][18] She donated a collection of Witherspoon Street School materials to the Historical Society of Princeton.[19]

In 2003, when she was 100 years old, she visited a kindergarten class in Tryon, North Carolina, to help them mark the 100th day of school. "I can remember the first time I saw a telephone, light bulb and gracious me, an automobile," she told the children. "It was a Ford and my oldest brother learned how to drive it in the pasture. I think he frightened the cows."[20]

Personal life and legacy

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Brown married scientist and educator Howard B. Waxwood Jr. in 1929. He died in 1977.[21] They had a son, Howard B. Waxwood III, who died in 1979. She moved to Tryon, North Carolina in 2002[22] to live near her granddaughter,[23] and died in Plainsboro, New Jersey in 2006, aged 103 years.[24] Her portrait hangs in the lobby of the Princeton YWCA,[25] and her birthday is still marked with a canned goods drive by the Princeton Crisis Ministry.[26] The Waxwoods were honored as "Unsung Heroes" at Princeton's Community House in 2007,[27] and featured in a coloring book published for Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2021.[28]

References

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  1. ^ Smith, Cherranda (June 18, 2021). "Hidden Figures: These Two Black Scientists Developed A Test To Prove The Polio Vaccine Worked". BIN: Black Information Network. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  2. ^ "Russell Wilfred Brown (1905-1985)". Tuskegee University Archives. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  3. ^ Howard University, The Bison (1925 yearbook): 47.
  4. ^ "Chapter History" Alpha Beta Omega.
  5. ^ "Susie Waxwood, Reaching Age 100, is Feted by Friends". Princeton Town Topics. October 2, 2002. p. 23. Retrieved February 9, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ "Acting YWCA Director Chosen for Area". The Montclair Times. 1969-04-03. p. 2. Retrieved 2022-02-09 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "YWCA Again Plans to Offer How to Study in College Course". The Montclair Times. 1971-05-27. p. 18. Retrieved 2022-02-09 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Radio Highlights". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1998-01-05. p. 27. Retrieved 2022-02-09 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ YWCA Princeton's Tribute to Women Awards, Former Princeton and Trenton Honorees (2020).
  10. ^ "YWCA to honor healthcare, social justice advocates". Community News. March 4, 2014. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  11. ^ Watterson, Kathryn (2017-06-06). I Hear My People Singing: Voices of African American Princeton. Princeton University Press. p. 326. ISBN 978-0-691-17645-1.
  12. ^ "The Links, Incorporated, 30th National Assembly, July 1996: Celebrating 50 Years, 1946-1996". Thirtieth National Assembly of Links, Inc., 1996, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. 1996. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  13. ^ "Chapter History". Central New Jersey (NJ) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  14. ^ "Clubs and Organizations". Princeton Town Topics. January 13, 1982. p. 21. Retrieved February 9, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  15. ^ United States Congress Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources Subcommittee on Aging (1980). Home Energy Assistance Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Aging of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-sixth Congress, First Session, on S. 1724 ... U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 663–664.
  16. ^ Jefferson, Vanessa D. (1979-06-17). "From Inner City to Retirement Community, State's Senior Citizens Face Age's Challenge". The Central New Jersey Home News. p. 48. Retrieved 2022-02-09 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Censer, Marjorie (20 May 2005). "Century of history toasted at Waxwood celebration". Central Jersey Archives. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  18. ^ "History - The Waxwood". Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  19. ^ Witherspoon Street School Materials, Historical Society of Princeton.
  20. ^ Smith, Benny Lee (January 28, 2003). "Centenarian awes kindergartners on 100th day of class". Spartanburg Herald Journal. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  21. ^ "Howard B. Waxwood Jr., 1926". Rutgers African American Alumni Gallery: The Forerunner Generation; Scarlet and Black Digital Archive. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  22. ^ "Honored by the Community". Princeton Town Topics. October 2, 2002. p. 1. Retrieved February 9, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  23. ^ Bearse, Myrna K. (September 8, 1999). "After 64 years of local involvement, Susie Waxwood is leaving Princeton". Princeton Town Topics. pp. 1, 42. Retrieved February 9, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  24. ^ "Longtime Resident Susie Waxwood Dies at 103". Town Topics. February 8, 2006. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  25. ^ "YWCA Members to See Portrait of Mrs. Waxwood". The Central New Jersey Home News. 1969-01-28. p. 13. Retrieved 2022-02-09 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ Oppenheim, Linda (2017-09-13). "Happy Birthday, Mrs. Waxwood!". Not In Our Town Princeton. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  27. ^ Aronson, Emily (February 9, 2007). "Community House honors 'Unsung Heroes,' Feb. 25". Princeton University. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  28. ^ Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Princeton Celebration 2021 (Arts Council of Princeton, 2021).
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