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Bobby Brown's inspiring sister mourned
submitted by: Lisa D.
source: The Boston Herald
Date: June 29, 2003
By Howard Manly
Her name was Elizabeth Brown but everybody called her Bethy, and although her brother Bobby remains better known around the world, she was a star in Orchard Park, not for any remarkable singing or dancing talents but for her determination to kick a drug addiction.
She died clean at the age of 44 of lung cancer, and, by all accounts, she helped countless others kick their habits, a spiritual transformation her mother Carole Brown called "unexplainable." She had been sober for the last 10 years.
About 300 family and friends, including her celebrity brother Bobby Brown, came to bury Bethy yesterday. Instead of mourning, they tried to celebrate what they considered an inspirational life.
"There were many dark days and stormy nights," the Rev. Willie Dubose told a packed New Hope Baptist Church yesterday. "But there is no more suffering now. There are no more setbacks nor pain. There is no more crying."
The open casket was draped with an assortment of purple and white flowers. Giant panes of stained glass lined the walls of the sanctuary as funky gospel music blared throughout the South End church. The most moving testimony came from several of her friends, many of whom had struggled with their own demons.
"I was just getting clean," Athena Haddon said. "And Bethy and I shared the same counselors. I didn't know what they were really talking about but they said that Bethy and I would be friends for life. It was so true. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Bethy. We leaned on each other. We stayed on the phone for hours at a time. She didn't just talk the talk. She walked the walk."
Another friend, Tracy Mack, told the story of when she visited Bethy after she became sick.
"She was all right with it," Mack said. "It was kind of funny because I had to lean on her and she was the one who was sick."
Not all the testimony was about the dark and stormy. Some talked about how Bethy was "fast talking and classy walking." Others talked about her frequent clothes shopping sprees.
"You know I had to get me a new outfit," Bethy often told friends.
Tonya Jones remembered the old days of carefree living, hanging out at Washington Park by day and at the Sugar Shack at night.
Back in the day, Bethy and Charlie Johnson were a couple. Johnson grew up in Orchard Park, the public housing project in Roxbury, and the two had two children together. "We were like Bonnie and Clyde," Johnson said. "That was my gal." He said they were friends to the end. "She never complained," Johnson said. "She was an incredible inspiration. She never let anyone know that she was sick or wasn't feeling well."
Despite all attempts to talk about the joy, tears were unavoidable, especially from Bethy's mother.
"She gave us strength," Carole Brown said. "I know what she would tell me now - 'Mama, don't cry. Just do what you have to do . . .' "
Mama cried anyway.
"Very few know the pain of losing a child," Rev. Dubose said. "It reaches the deepest shadow of sorrow."
Whitney Houston was on the program to sing a solo but her husband stood in, his voice filled with emotion as he sang, "His eye is on the sparrow," a powerful spiritual that contains the refrain, "I sing because I'm happy . . . I sing because I'm free."
A few people hung outside of the church to catch up with old friends. Luella Goffigan was one of them. She knew the Brown family growing up in Orchard Park.
"I just wanted to show my respect," said Goffigan, whose nephew Jermaine was murdered almost a decade ago.
She also got the chance to hug Bobby. "He thanked me for coming by," she said.
At Saturday's funeral, friends and family members told stories of her selflessness, of spending hours on the telephone providing comfort and guidance. As the Rev. Willie Dubose eulogized, Bethy had many "dark days and stormy nights," but she also found joy.
Her spirituality was so strong, she was able to serve as a rock despite her own battle with cancer. When Bobby Brown and his wife, Whitney Houston, recently toured Israel, Bethy went along and was baptized in the Holy Land.
By all accounts, Bethy was all of that, and leaves that legacy for her children to follow.
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