David P. Brown

The following bio was taken from page 126 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Shirley Koym

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

David Paul Brown is the son of Paul Gentry and Mary McCarter Brown. He is married to Pamela Hankins Brown, who is the daughter of Elmo and Aline Moore Hankins.

Both the Brown and the McCarter families came from South Carolina. The McCarter family came from King County and the Brown family from Darlington County. David’s great-great-grandfather Brown was born in 1770 in South Carolina, and he and his wife, Rhoda, moved to East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, shortly after 1800. The Brown family had a large plantation.

Benjamin and Rhoda had a son, Major Redden Brown, born in 1795. Redden was a veteran of the War of 1812. He and his wife, Ester Bell, had a son, Benjamin Franklin Brown, who was born in 1842. He was a captain in the Confederate Army. After the Civil War he came to Bosque County, Texas, and married Lucy Russell. Later they moved to Stephens County, Texas. They had a son, Henderson Lee Brown, who was born in 1872. After they moved to Stephens County, Lee married Lauretta Alice Gentry. The Gentry family had come to Stephens County from Paragould, Arkansas. Her father’s name was Gilbert Fate Gentry. In 1897, Lee and Etta had a son, Paul Gentry Brown. He came to Rusk County in 1931. He married Mary McCarter, a native of Rusk County. He is a lawyer and retired District Judge.

David’s great-grandfather McCarter was James Duff Patrick McCarter. He served in Hood’s Texas Brigade during the Civil War. One of his sons was Elias Hubbard (Pat) McCarter, who married Ellen Tipps. Ellen’s father was Reverend Leander E. Tipps, a Presbyterian minister. Pat and Ellen had a daughter, Mary, born in 1905. Both the McCarter and the Tipps families have lived in Rusk County for many years.

Paul and Mary were married in Henderson in 1934. Their son, David, was born in Henderson on March 8, 1939. He attended the Henderson Public Schools, graduating in 1957. He attended the University of Texas and received his Bachelor’s degree there. He then served in the Texas National Guard and the Army Reserve. Following this, he attended the University of Texas Law School and received a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree. He worked for the federal government in Austin for three years. He then returned to Henderson to practice law and has been Assistant County Attorney of Rusk County, Texas since 1973. In 1976, he married Pamela Kay Hankins. In 1980 he ran for State Representative unsuccessfully. Then on October 2, 1981, Mary Kendra Brown was born to David and Pam. They are members of the First United Methodist Church and are active in civic affairs in Rusk County.

Pam was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, September 3, 1948. Shortly after that, she and her family moved to Red River Parish to her father’s homeplace in the Fairview Alpha Community. She graduated from Coushatta High School in 1965 and attended Northwestern State University in Louisiana where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. She taught at Tyler Junior College for ten years.

Pam’s grandparents were J. M. and Ala Howell Hankins and Dr. John Robert Moore and Beulah Colvin Moore. Dr. Moore was the doctor for the Fairview Alpha Community.

Submitted by Pamela Brown