Northpinellas: City to break ground on police substation

CLEARWATER -- City and police officials will break ground on the city's newest police substation in a ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Monday at the Wood Valley substation site at 2816 Park Trail Lane.

City commissioners and police Chief Sid Klein will attend, and the public is invited. Three police officers have worked from a substation at a park recreation center since February 1998, but officers could not use it when the center was closed. The new substation will operate around the clock and be available for neighborhood groups to hold meetings, said police Sgt. Doug Griffith.

Griffith said the Wood Valley area has grappled with increased crime during the past few years as the population has grown more transient, Griffith said. He said the substation, which is being paid for by the Penny for Pinellas sales tax, is in response to requests from citizens in that area. The new substation will be about 1,800 square feet and is expected to open in six months, Griffith said.

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ID: + Paper: +

Date: 1/13/01 Page: 1 +

Section: HERNANDO TIMES Byline: JAMIE MALERNEE+

Headline: Annie Bell Brown's strength inspired all around her

Notes: +

BROOKSVILLE -- Julia Jinkens remembers one night at the county fair when she asked Jerome Brown to sing in public with her

The football star refused and rushed away as fast as possible. But it took only one phrase to bring him back.

"If you don't do this, Jerome, I'm going to tell your mother," Jinkens, a family friend, told the towering athlete.

"And wouldn't you know," Jinkens recalled Friday," he turned around and sang not only one song but three."

That's the kind of love and respect that the late Jerome Brown had for his mother, Annie Bell Brown, who died Thursday at 67 of cancer at her home in Brooksville. And that's the kind of love and respect friends and family members say they also shared for her.

"She helped everybody in this community, from delivering babies to helping people at the end of their lives," Jinkens said. "She worked all her life in a hospital, but when (illness) hit her, she kept it to herself."

Mrs. Brown died of lung cancer that spread from her lungs to the rest of her body, said her son, Calvin Brown. She had been sick since the summer and had lost a considerable amount of weight, but had time to say goodbye to those she loved.

"Of course, with someone like her, there's never enough time," he added. "She was honest and hardworking and loving. She would walk into a room and light it up. And she wouldn't leave without you learning something, without giving you some advice."

Many of those who knew Mrs. Brown, a longtime nurse's aide at Brooksville Regional Hospital, said they admired her strength and her faith in God. When her son, Jerome, was suddenly killed in a car accident in 1992, she was the strong one, they recalled.

"We leaned on her more than she leaned on us," Jinkens said.

After his death, the Browns supported efforts to create the Jerome Brown Community Center, a recreation center funded by donations from the community and NFL players, many of whom had played with Brown -- a football star with Hernando High School, the University of Miami and the Philadelphia Eagles.

After his death, many of those players returned to participate in the Jerome Brown "Just For Kids" Football Clinic. They would stop by to visit with the family -- and sample a bit of Mrs. Brown's sweet potato pie.

"She was a mother to everybody, and that's what made her so special," said Keith Jackson, a former teammate of Brown's with the Eagles. Mrs. Brown even kept a special plate on which to serve Jackson his pie. "She was the glue that really made everyone stick together. Brooksville's a little out of the way, but she always made you feel at home. You'd leave and think, if we come back, we'll get a little more of that cooking."

Tim Jinkens, best friend to Jerome Brown, said he will always picture Mrs. Brown bustling around the kitchen.

"You had to mind your p's and q's when she was around. And even if you said you didn't want anything to eat, when you sat down, a plate would be there," he said. "She took care of everyone. There's going to be a big void."

Calvin Brown said living without his mother's strength will be difficult, but the family will try to follow the lessons she taught them.

"Put God first, and you can make something of yourself -- that's what she taught all of us," he said. "So we've got to put God first and pray we get through this."

Services for Mrs. Brown are planned for 11 a.m. Jan. 20 at Community Funeral Services in Brooksville. She is survived by her husband of 41 years, Willie Brown, nine children and dozens of grandchildren.

- Times staff writer Greg Auman contributed to this report.

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