Archie Brown Jr - Online Memorial Website
Memorial Website - Archie Brown Jr
Bully's Life Story
Archie " Bully" Brown Jr. was born on Nov. 20, 1955. He was the first child of Archie & Ada Brown. Archie was 17 yrs. old and Ada was only 15 yrs. old. Ada wanted her son to be a junior like his father was, so that is where his name came from. She didn't realize until later that Archie Sr. was actually named Robert Archie Brown at birth and he just went by Archie but by then, they had already named him and it was too late. Their second son was named Robert Lee Brown (nicknamed Tuffy). Ada and Archie had gone on to have 7 more children, Robert, Randy, Brenda, David, Angel, Chester and Willie. Life was not always so easy for them.
As young parents Archie and Ada struggled to make ends meet and had moved quite often, but the Brown children were close. They may have not had alot of things but they always had each other and always had a great time just being together. There were many struggles the family endured and some of their memories of their childhood weren't always that good.
Growing up, Bully was thought of as almost a second Dad to his younger brothers and sisters. Ada did have to rely on him quite a bit with 8 children to keep track of. And as he became a teenager, he quit school in the ninth grade and went to work and helped his family out. He and his father didn't quite see eye to eye on alot of things, so he ended up moving out and living on his own around the age of 16. Even though he did have his independence, he never forgot about his family. He would come and pick them up after work and take them places. Some of the stories that he told me and our family were hilarious, like shooting fireworks at each other when they were in separate cars and driving at the same time. Part of this story will probably include some of those stories, at least I hope so, they are sure to keep you entertained!
I met Bully just before school let out for the summer of 1976. They had moved into the same subdivision we lived in a few months earlier. His parents had grown up in the same neighborhood as my Dad and they all went to school together. Their family often visited my aunt and uncle's house and that was where I had first seen Bully. He was so different from other guys I had been attracted to before. He was a cowboy and loved being out in the country and I was still a city girl that had been forced to move out to the country when my folks bought property out there. Anyway, I had a steady boyfriend and really wasn't looking for anyone at the time. Then one night I had gone to my aunt's house and met Bully and his sister Brenda. They asked me if I would go out with him because there was this other girl that really wanted to be his girlfriend and he wanted to show her that he was already dating someone (me). I actually agreed to do it because I had just found out my boyfriend had gone out of town to his ex's prom and I was pretty mad at him, so we went out ..
Sparks flew immediatetly for us and we both knew within a few weeks that we were in love. We married 3 months later on Sept. 3, 1976. We were both so young, so we did have our share of problems to work out the 1st year. We spent parts of that time apart. I went to visit my mom in Alaska, but missed Bully so much I came back home and moved in with his parents. I was determined not to give up on us. Eventually, he admitted to himself and then to me that he wasn't sure that being married was what he wanted, but then he realized it was and we were inseparable after that.
Two years later on Feb. 11, 1978, we had our beautiful daughter Nissa and life was great! She weighed 7 lbs. 11 ozs. One thing I remember when I first saw her is that she had a perfect complexion. She was the most beautiful baby that I had ever seen! Actually, I think the day that Nissa was born was the happiest day of my life. Being a parent was the one role that Bully took on with pride. He was determined to not let our children have one single bad memory of their childhood. He was destined to be a great father and absolutely was as my children and grandchildren will attest to, they had the best.
Just 2 months after Nissa was born, Bully's dad, Archie passed away. I know the family had it's problems, but I could tell that their father's death affected each and everyone of them. I'm so very grateful that he was able to hold his 1st grandchild before he died.
One year later on July 26, 1979,we welcomed our handsome son Adam to our family. He weighed a whooping 9 lbs. 9 ozs. The funny thing that happened when Adam was born was another lady had given birth at the same time as I did and she had a girl. When the nurse came out to tell Bully about the baby, she got them mixed up and announced to him that we had another daughter, he was a tad bit disappointed and kept staring at the baby boy in the nursery. My Dad took a look at Adam and told Bully, " Son, you need to ask those nurses again about that boy, I think that is your son!". Sure enough, Bully tapped on the window and verified that Adam was his. Talk about a proud daddy...nothing could bring him down from that cloud!! Later my Dad had told me then that we had a" Millionaire's family" and that is exactly how we felt. Both Bully and I had pretty tough childhoods, so we made a promise to each other, that we would do our best to make sure our children would not have the same bad memories as we did. I think we managed to do exactly that. Adam only has good memories and tries to pattern his child rearing after ours, which believe me is a complement that Bully and I are very proud of.
At first, we moved quite a bit, but by the time the kids were in school, we put our roots down in Bastrop. I think Bully lived his second childhood through our kids, neices and nephews. There was always fun things for the kids to do from Aunt Beda's horse & lawnmower rides to our go carts & 3 wheelers. Ada's 2nd husband, Jimmy had dug us a tank on the property that we all shared. .
We moved closer to Bastrop as the kids grew older. We lived next to MiMi G's restaurant for several years. The kids formed some special bonds with some friends that they still have to this day. In 1992, we were asked from a family member ( although most of you know who this person is, I do not have her permission to use her name, so I'm not going to ), if we would be interested in adopting the baby she was carrying. It wasn't a planned pregnancy and she wasn't financially able to take care of it. Bully and I were both were very skeptical, we talked and talked about it. After discussing it with the kids, we agreed to let the birth mom move in with us for the remainder of her pregnancy. We thought that would be the sure way we would be able to tell she was serious about the whole thing. Well, to make a long story short, she was, Alaina Marie Brown was born on Sept. 12, 1992. She weighed a whopping 9lbs.4ozs. I was there when she was born and fell in love with her the moment I saw her. It was a little difficult for the birth mom at first, but she assured us she was not going to change her mind and we even had the attorney come down to the hospital to grant us guardianship until the adoption was final. Even though Bully and I both expected a few problems with all of this, there were'nt any. She became a "legal Brown" when she was six months old. She was a "Daddy's girl" from day one.
I remember for the first few night's she would just cry and cry when I would try to get her to sleep. I felt like maybe she knew that I wasn't her real mom and didn't like me. Of course, with all the crying, Bully would wake up, take one look at both of us crying, put Alaina in his arms and she would stop. Eventually, I realized I was just so frustrated that she sensed it. Alaina has known that she was adopted before she even knew what the word meant. We thought that would be the best way to handle this situtation since it was a family matter. It was the right choice, Alaina is a very self confident, loving child.
We moved to the house we still live in when Alaina was 6 months old. The day Bully showed it to me, I thought he was crazy! It was a wreck! But he has the ability to see the potential of what it would become. And he was absolutely right. Although we have remodeled several times since then, this house has always been a home for us. Nissa and Adam had their teenage years here and our home has seen countless friends, parties, family get togethers. holidays, and graduations. Adam met the love of his life here,Yvonne. This house has so many memories in it. Although we had talked about finding some property and moving 1 more time when he was alive, now that Bully is gone, I don't think it will that easy for us.But who knows for sure what the future holds for us.
Adam and Yvonne gave us 3 beautiful grandchildren, Haley, Samantha, and AJ. They were absolutely one of the greatest joys in Bully's life. We were there when each one was born, and have not let a day go by without seeing them or talking to them. Although he did not have a favorite, AJ could do no wrong in Bully's eyes. The girls may have got punished for something they did that was wrong, but AJ could do the same thing and Grandpa ( or Pa Pa, as AJ called him), would let him get away with it.
As you can tell by reading this story, our family was the most important thing to Bully and the best legacy that he has left behind. We all stop and think for a moment now, before we make a decision...what would Bully do?
Although we mourn for him daily, we all know that he is watching over us and he still loves us and is waiting for us all to be together once again.
Here are some of the families favorite stories. If you have a story that you would like to put on here, just send it to me and I'll make sure it gets put on......
From my brother Dan...
Dan's story:
Hey Dee, there is one story that I can remember.
I think I was about 15-16 and Bully wanted to take me out to teach me how to drive. On the way home from Elgin he decided to give me my first lesson driving his car. I was driving along and we were coming up to stop sign at the end of 1704 and he started telling me to let off the gas pedal and start pressing down on the brake pedal. Well, I got nervous because I wanted to impress him and still drive more. Well, I froze with my foot on the gas pedal and instead of slowing down, I sped up. I ended up crossing 969 (I think that's the road), going straight over the road (luckily no traffic was coming from BOTH directions), I ran through this guys fence and ended up in his pasture. Bully never yelled at me, in fact, he laughed and I started laughing. Of course, he wouldn't let me drive the rest of the way home. But I still remember the look on his face when I started speeding up, blowing the stop sign, crashing thru the fence. I couldn't admit this before because he would've kicked my ass but he looked like a scared little boy. That was the main reason why I started laughing, not because he was, but I remembered the way he looked with that scared baby face of his.
Hope this can do for now, but will try to think of more later. Love ya Dee, Dan.
From sister Brenda...
Brenda's Story:
Mom told Bully to get me, the bull was coming at me. The boys got to running and Bully came back and got me, but he got me by the hair. We was off, I was like 3 or 4 he was 8 or 9.You will have to have a life time to tell all the storys we all got, so much to say about him.it was about in 1964 or 1965 about that time I think. Hope you can understand this. Thank you for doing this from all of us.
Love Beda.