Susie Ione Brown Waxwood
{{short description|American clubwoman}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Susie Ione Brown Waxwood
| image = SusieIoneBrownWaxwood1925.png
| alt = A young Black woman with light skin and straight dark hair, cut to jaw length with a deep side part
| caption = Susie Ione Brown, from the 1925 yearbook of Howard University
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| birth_date = September 12, 1902
| birth_place = Gray, Louisiana
| death_date = January 30, 2006 (aged 103)
| death_place = Plainsboro Township, New Jersey
| occupation = Philanthropist, clubwoman
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
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
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{{Cite web|last=Smith|first=Cherranda|date=June 18, 2021|title=Hidden Figures: These Two Black Scientists Developed A Test To Prove The Polio Vaccine Worked|url=https://www.binnews.com/content/2021-06-18-these-two-black-scientists-helped-prove-the-polio-vaccine-worked/|access-date=2022-02-09|website=BIN: Black Information Network|language=en}} and professor at Tuskegee Institute.{{Cite web|title=Russell Wilfred Brown (1905-1985)|url=https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/tu01/id/51/|access-date=2022-02-09|website=Tuskegee University Archives|language=en}} 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.Howard University, [https://dh.howard.edu/bison_yearbooks/106/ The Bison] (1925 yearbook): 47.
Career
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.[https://alphabetaomega.org/chapter-history/ "Chapter History"] Alpha Beta Omega.
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.{{Cite news|date=October 2, 2002|title=Susie Waxwood, Reaching Age 100, is Feted by Friends|page=23|work=Princeton Town Topics|url=https://archive.org/details/towntopicsprince5631unse/page/22/mode/2up?q=Susie+Waxwood|access-date=February 9, 2022|via=Internet Archive}} She was executive director of the Princeton YWCA from 1958 to 1968,{{Cite news|date=1969-04-03|title=Acting YWCA Director Chosen for Area|pages=2|work=The Montclair Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94582259/acting-ywca-director-chosen-for-area/|access-date=2022-02-09|via=Newspapers.com}} the branch's first Black director. She was acting executive director of the Montclair-North Essex YWCA from 1969 to 1971.{{Cite news|date=1971-05-27|title=YWCA Again Plans to Offer How to Study in College Course|pages=18|work=The Montclair Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94581821/ywca-again-plans-to-offer-how-to-study/|access-date=2022-02-09|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1998 she worked for the Princeton YWCA's endowment campaign.{{Cite news|date=1998-01-05|title=Radio Highlights|pages=27|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94581965/radio-highlights/|access-date=2022-02-09|via=Newspapers.com}} The Princeton YWCA awards an annual Waxwood Lifetime Award, named in her honor in 1999.[https://www.ywcaprinceton.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Former-Honorees-PDF-as-of-2020.pdf YWCA Princeton's Tribute to Women Awards], Former Princeton and Trenton Honorees (2020).{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=March 4, 2014|title=YWCA to honor healthcare, social justice advocates|url=https://www.communitynews.org/archives/ywca-to-honor-healthcare-social-justice-advocates/article_d2e0d2d2-c8fa-5208-b29f-85bb29ff7083.html|access-date=2022-02-09|website=Community News|language=en}}
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,{{Cite book|last=Watterson|first=Kathryn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=83GYDwAAQBAJ&dq=Susie+Brown+Waxwood&pg=PA326|title=I Hear My People Singing: Voices of African American Princeton|date=2017-06-06|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-17645-1|pages=326|language=en}} and a charter member of the Central New Jersey chapter of The Links.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=1996|title=The Links, Incorporated, 30th National Assembly, July 1996: Celebrating 50 Years, 1946-1996|url=https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth305912/m1/77/|access-date=2022-02-09|website=Thirtieth National Assembly of Links, Inc., 1996, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States|language=English}}{{Cite web|title=Chapter History|url=https://centralnewjerseylinksinc.org/|access-date=2022-02-09|website=Central New Jersey (NJ) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated|language=en-US}} She was named Soroptimist Woman of the Year in 1977.{{Cite news|date=January 13, 1982|title=Clubs and Organizations|page=21|work=Princeton Town Topics|url=https://archive.org/details/towntopicsprince3644unse/page/20/mode/2up?q=Susie+Waxwood|access-date=February 9, 2022|via=Internet Archive}}
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.{{Cite book|last=United States Congress Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources Subcommittee on Aging|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Q5d92MP8hUC&dq=Susie+Waxwood&pg=PA664|title=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 ....|date=1980|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=663–664|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Jefferson|first=Vanessa D.|date=1979-06-17|title=From Inner City to Retirement Community, State's Senior Citizens Face Age's Challenge|pages=48|work=The Central New Jersey Home News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94582174/from-inner-city-to-retirement/|access-date=2022-02-09|via=Newspapers.com}} An apartment complex was named the Waxwood after her husband, at the site of his former school, and she attended the dedication.{{Cite web|last=Censer|first=Marjorie|title=Century of history toasted at Waxwood celebration|url=https://archive.centraljersey.com/2005/05/20/century-of-history-toasted-at-waxwood-celebration/|access-date=2022-02-09|website=Central Jersey Archives|date=20 May 2005 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=History - The Waxwood|url=https://www.thewaxwood.com/history/|access-date=2022-02-09|language=en-US}} She donated a collection of Witherspoon Street School materials to the Historical Society of Princeton.[https://princeton.pastperfectonline.com/archive/B8809E56-1BC9-429F-B8C0-416858292486 Witherspoon Street School Materials], Historical Society of Princeton.
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."{{Cite web|last=Smith|first=Benny Lee|date=January 28, 2003|title=Centenarian awes kindergartners on 100th day of class|url=https://www.goupstate.com/story/news/2003/01/29/centenarian-awes-kindergartners-on-100th-day-of-class/29659027007/|access-date=2022-02-09|website=Spartanburg Herald Journal|language=en-US}}
Personal life and legacy
Brown married scientist and educator Howard B. Waxwood Jr. in 1929. He died in 1977.{{Cite web|title=Howard B. Waxwood Jr., 1926|url=https://scarletandblack.rutgers.edu/archive/exhibits/show/alumni-gallery/waxwood|access-date=2022-02-09|website=Rutgers African American Alumni Gallery: The Forerunner Generation; Scarlet and Black Digital Archive}} They had a son, Howard B. Waxwood III, who died in 1979. She moved to Tryon, North Carolina in 2002{{Cite news|date=October 2, 2002|title=Honored by the Community|page=1|work=Princeton Town Topics|url=https://archive.org/details/towntopicsprince5631unse/mode/2up?q=Susie+Waxwood|access-date=February 9, 2022|via=Internet Archive}} to live near her granddaughter,{{Cite news|last=Bearse|first=Myrna K.|date=September 8, 1999|title=After 64 years of local involvement, Susie Waxwood is leaving Princeton|pages=1, 42|work=Princeton Town Topics|url=https://archive.org/details/towntopicsprince5327unse/mode/2up?q=Susie+Waxwood|access-date=February 9, 2022|via=Internet Archive}} and died in Plainsboro, New Jersey in 2006, aged 103 years.{{Cite web|date=February 8, 2006|title=Longtime Resident Susie Waxwood Dies at 103|url=https://archive.org/details/towntopicsprince6006unse/mode/2up?q=Susie+Waxwood|access-date=2022-02-09|website=Town Topics}} Her portrait hangs in the lobby of the Princeton YWCA,{{Cite news|date=1969-01-28|title=YWCA Members to See Portrait of Mrs. Waxwood|pages=13|work=The Central New Jersey Home News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94593552/ywca-members-to-see-portrait-of-mrs/|access-date=2022-02-09|via=Newspapers.com}} and her birthday is still marked with a canned goods drive by the Princeton Crisis Ministry.{{Cite web|last=Oppenheim|first=Linda|date=2017-09-13|title=Happy Birthday, Mrs. Waxwood!|url=https://niotprinceton.org/2017/09/13/happy-birthday-mrs-waxwood/|access-date=2022-02-09|website=Not In Our Town Princeton|language=en}} The Waxwoods were honored as "Unsung Heroes" at Princeton's Community House in 2007,{{Cite web|last=Aronson|first=Emily|date=February 9, 2007|title=Community House honors 'Unsung Heroes,' Feb. 25|url=https://www.princeton.edu/news/2007/02/09/community-house-honors-unsung-heroes-feb-25|access-date=2022-02-09|website=Princeton University|language=en}} and featured in a coloring book published for Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2021.[http://artscouncilofprinceton.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/MLKCOLORING-2.pdf Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Princeton Celebration 2021] (Arts Council of Princeton, 2021).
References
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Category:Howard University alumni
Category:Alpha Kappa Alpha members
Category:People from Princeton, New Jersey
Category:African-American centenarians
Category:American women centenarians