[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 127 (Friday, August 3, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1735]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              WANDA A. BROWN: MISSOURI PRESS HALL OF FAME

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. IKE SKELTON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 3, 2007

  Mr. SKELTON. Madam Speaker, on September 7th, the Missouri Press 
Association's Missouri Press Hall of Fame will have as its newest 
member a person who has devoted her life to community journalism, 
community philanthropy and community service, all while raising a 
family of public servants and serving as a business and civic partner 
with her late husband.
  Wanda Brown was born June 16, 1918, in Franklin County, AR. She 
attended Draughon's Business College in Ft. Smith, AR, from 1936-1938. 
After graduation, she was business manager for Robbins Buick Motor 
Company in Ft. Smith. She met her husband, J.W. Brown, Jr., when he 
came into the dealership to buy tires. They were married June 14, 1946. 
From 1946 until 1955, they made their home in Willow Springs, MO, where 
J.W. owned the newspaper and also served as Postmaster. In 1955, they 
purchased the Harrisonville Democrat-Missourian and formed the Cass 
County Publishing Company. Under the ownership of J.W. and Wanda Brown, 
Cass County Publishing Company operated the Cass County Democrat-
Missourian, the Lee's Summit Journal, the Belton Star Herald, the Bates 
County Democrat and the Lawrence County Record.
  Two generations of Cass County residents have known Wanda Brown as 
the author of a column in the Democrat-Missourian, ``Wanda's Favorite 
Recipes,'' and have prepared many of them for their families. Few 
probably are aware that the proceeds from two of her recipe books were 
given to support The Way Off Broadway Players and the Cass Medical 
Center Foundation.
  With her retirement in 1985, after 30 years as Business Manager of 
the Cass County Publishing Company, she accelerated her contributions 
to her community and to the State of Missouri. Wanda Brown has been a 
generous supporter of the Missouri Press Foundation, the Harrisonville 
Memorial Hospital, and the Harrisonville Public School Foundation. In 
her hometown of Harrisonville, she has contributed to the construction 
of the Harrisonville Baseball Fields, to the Harrisonville High School 
Bleacher Project, the Children's Library at the Cass County Information 
Center, and to the creation of a nursing scholarship at the Cass 
Medical Center. She was a leader in the campaigns to fund the Thermal 
Imaging Camera for the Harrisonville Fire Department, the construction 
of the Harrisonville Parks Amphitheater, and the creation of the 
Harrisonville Public School Foundation Endowment. She also helped to 
fund the Community Journalism Chair at the University of Missouri 
School of Journalism.
  I would like to extend my most sincere congratulations to Wanda and 
her family--Larry and Jean Snider, Bill and Mary James, Alex, Doug, 
Kate, Anne, and Molly. I am certain that my colleagues will join me in 
commending Wanda for her decades of community service.

                          ____________________