A Day of Discovery: Remembering Todd

Members of Todd Brown’s family, including his great uncle John Lavender, grandmother Lucille Hurst, great aunt Malinda Allen and aunt Tangela Baptiste pose with the program presented at Brown’s funeral one year ago.

Todd Brown loved video games.

He loved music.

He loved football.

He loved life.

The second youngest of four boys, Brown is remembered by family members as being “a smiling child” who was “very playful” and religious.

“I love all my grands, but Todd was special,” said Brown’s grandmother, Lucille Hurst.

“No matter when he walked in the room, he would tell you he loved you. He would hug you,” she added.

Brown was an Auburn fan who loved to play video games, make music and play football. He aspired to one day be a member of the Bob Jones High School football team.

He came from a tight knit family. He spent every weekend at his grandmother’s home, where he would play with his many cousins.

“We were like brothers,” said Brown’s cousin, Jaron Moore.

His uncle, John Lavender, said his nephew “loved having devotion” and learning stories from the Bible.

Brown attended Emmanuel Sabbath Assembly in Huntsville every Saturday.

Moore remembered a time when he and Brown re-enacted the story of Samson, his favorite story in the Bible.

“We were always at my grandmother’s house,” Moore said. “We would stay up late at night, eating and playing games, all of the cousins. We would run around playing manhunt or basketball, and then come inside and eat all the sweets. We saw each other everyday, every weekend.”

Lavender said Brown mostly hung out with his brother and cousins, especially his younger brother, Tyler, who is a currently a student at Discovery.

‘He was like any other kid’

Brown’s smile was infectious, and it radiated on a daily basis.

His second block Algebra teacher at Discovery, Demarius Anderson, said Brown was a “very respectful” student who always said ‘yes and no ma’am’ when called on and frequently stayed after school to help clean the room.

“He always asked me if he could stay after and help sweep the room,” Anderson said.

She said Brown was having trouble with math, but he continued to strive to raise his grade.

“He was working on becoming the most improved student,” Anderson said. “I remember him working so hard to improve his math grade. I looked at that as a student who made a commitment to strive for excellence and was living up to that.”

Brown promised her that he would improve his math grade before the semester was over.

“He was a great team player,” she said. “When you find students who are always willing to do what you ask them to do, that’s just a great thing. It’s something you wish you had from every student. And then that smile, of course. When you look up, he’s smiling and you’re thinking ‘what’s going on,’ sometimes it was really nothing, just smiled a lot.”

She said he Brown was quite the funny character.

“Whenever given the opportunity to express himself, [Brown and his friends] always had a joke,” Anderson said.

“There was always something funny. If Todd was around, there was always a guarantee to laugh.  He was always smiling, no matter what,” she added.

Brown was a well-known jokester.

Sharon Willis, principal at Discovery said Brown was a “positive kid” and remembers his sense of humor.

“I had gotten onto him maybe in the beginning of January,” she said. “He was just a big kid and always smiling. Just had a beautiful smile. And that’s what his friends would say, always joking around always smiling.”

She had known Todd since the beginning of the school year, when he transferred from a county school into Madison.

“His first year was last year,” she said. “I really took that to heart because I had met his mom during the summer and met Todd and those things really come back to you.”

Dr. James Doggette and James Caldwell, both employees at Oakwood University, each received one of Brown’s kidneys only a couple days after his death.

Doggette was in bad health and had previously been denied twice for other transplants before receiving the call that Brown’s organ was available.

It was a lifesaver for Doggette, who joked with Hurst that Brown’s kidney wakes him up at night to use the restroom.

One year later, Brown is living on in the memories of his friends and family.

“He was a wonderful person,” Lavender said.