The summer sun beams through 84-year-old Vernita Brown’s window in Newburg. Her living room TV blares soap operas and game shows as she watches from her usual leather recliner.
Her friends and family sit around her, and she shares stories of the neighborhood.
Most people in Newburg call her Ms. Vernita, Ms. Brown or Mama. It’s a title she earned from her work at local community centers in downtown Louisville and Newburg.
Brown dedicated nearly 30 years of her life to directing recreation programs for children, teens and the elderly.
“What I did was because that's me,” she said. “I wasn't doing it for show or notoriety anything. I just love people. And as long as I live on this earth, it's gonna be like that.”
O.J. Mitchell met Brown at the community center when he was 10 years old. He said he played basketball there and grew up with Brown’s grandkids.
“She's like a second mom to everyone in the neighborhood,” Mitchell said. “And she's so humble and so kind. She's just done what God has called her to do, and she never even knew that we thought this highly of her, but we do.”
When the outside world didn’t feel safe, Mitchell said, Brown welcomed the neighborhood kids to the community center.
“We would get off the school bus and just go straight to the community center, and it would be just book bags all lined up on the floor, but our parents knew where to find us, and they knew that we were safe,” Mitchell said.
Brown gave them a place to play sports, eat a freshly cooked meal, make new friends and connect with old ones. She said she tried to teach them respect, honesty and responsibility.
“I tried to get in their life and understand what they were going through,” she said. “I did it because that's what I liked and that's what I wanted to do.”
Growing up, Brown said she wanted to be a gym teacher. When she learned about the job at the Newburg Community Center to run recreational activities, Brown thought it would be the next best thing.
Brown considered the community center kids to be family.
She has seven children of her own. Her sons, daughters and staff helped her create many programs for the community center kids over the years. Her daughter Marsha said it was like home.
“We cooked over there. We had football, we had all the sports my kids stayed in that center,” Marsha said. “They had cheerleaders, they had dance teams, they had basketball, they had soccer, football, all the sports you wanted, they did, and the kids stayed. That center was never closed.”
Brown said she couldn’t have done the work without the help of her staff.
When Brown ran the community center, the basketball coach was Tony Kimbro, a University of Louisville player from the late 1980s. Muhammad Ali’s brother and heavyweight boxer Rahaman Ali helped keep the community center running if Brown was ever out of town.
“I tell people it wasn't just me, it was us,” she said. “I had good staff, and we had good programs too.”
‘Honoring her legacy’
Earlier this year, Mitchell — who Brown cared for at the community center as a kid — made an online petition with the goal of honoring Brown in Newburg. He’s asking Louisville Metro Council to create a commemorative street sign or name the community center after her.
“I just think that would be a beautiful way to tribute her and honor her legacy,” he said.
Brown was shocked but grateful when she heard about it.
“I saw it on Facebook, but I had no idea [Mitchell] was the one that's doing it. Somebody told me who it was. I never would have thought that this would happen,” she said.
So far, more than 500 people have signed the petition. Most of them went to the community center growing up. Now, they're adults who sent their own children to Brown’s after-school and summer programs before she retired.
“It makes you feel so good that so many young people care about you and make you feel like you did something in their life,” Brown said.
District 2 Metro Council Member Barbara Shanklin said she will present a proposal for the street sign later this summer. She said honoring Brown is a no-brainer.
“My boys would go play basketball up there at the community center,” she said. “[Brown] was always helpful. I can't remember a time that she didn't come out and help in some kind of way.”
What’s next for Ms. Vernita?
Brown retired from the Newburg Community Center in 2003. She currently directs programs at her church, Forest Tabernacle Baptist Church, in the same neighborhood.
She can see the community center from her backyard. Now, her home is a gathering place for her former community center children and her 18 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and eight great-great grandchildren.
Most days, Brown sits on her front porch and looks out at the neighborhood. The kids she used to work with often stop by for a visit or honk their car horns to say hello as they drive by.
“We yell out the window real loud, ‘Miss Brown, we love you!’ And she'll yell back,” Mitchell said “It's just a joy for us.”
Brown said she recently considered going back to work at the community center.
“I enjoyed what I was doing,” Brown said, “and I wouldn't take it back.”
She said she noticed an uptick in gun violence in Louisville since she retired, and Marsha said her mom wants to keep Newburg kids out of harm's way.
“That's why there's a lot of violence and stuff going on nowadays, because [kids] don't have nothing to do,” Marsha said.
If she went back, Brown said she wants to bring back her summer programs for kids and teens.
No matter what, she’ll continue providing a loving environment in Newburg at the community center or her home.
In honor of LPM’s 75th Anniversary, we're sharing the stories of people who are changing our community for the better. We want to hear about someone who makes your life better. Share your story at lpm.org/75andChange.
