Dr. Dorothy Lavinia Brown

By Charlotte Fontaine& This Women’s History Month, we will reflect on the impressive career and life of Dr. Dorothy Lavinia Brown, who is the epitome of turning “no’s” into “yes’s.” Brown was born January 7, 1914 in Philadelphia, PA. She was raised in an orphanage until the age of 12 after being put there by her mother at 5 months old, who reclaimed her when she turned 13. However, given the volatile nature of their relationship, Brown preffered being at the orphanage and frequently ran away from her mother. Determined to make a life of her own separate from what she had known, she ran away at age 15 and enrolled herself at Troy High School. The school principal quickly caught on to her unstable living environment and arranged for a foster home to take her in.& Her foster parents, Lola and Samuel Wesley Redmon, became her family for life, and the first source of stability that she had ever known. Upon graduation from Troy High School, Brown was given a scholarship to Bennett College in North Carolina. Her first job out of college was as an inspector in the Rochester New York Army Ordinance Department. However, since she had...