Interview with Lee F. Browne - Caltech Oral Histories

Browne–10
BROWNE: No, no. Bette Davis was a white movie star.
COHEN: Yes, right.
BROWNE: She gave a lot of money to Storer College prep school.
COHEN: Now, why would that be?
BROWNE: I don’t know. I guess she was contacted. She may have been part of that Free-will
Baptist bunch in her background, which nobody knows about.
COHEN: Yes.
BROWNE: But anyway, she came and spent time and was friendly with the students. There were
a lot of gifted students at that school. They were the kind of people like me who were motivated
to do things out of the ordinary. So Bette Davis was very, very, very good. Then after that, I
wrote a letter to Michigan State. And I talked it over with Yak—Y-A-K, because of his hair.
[Chuckle]
COHEN: Yes. That’s Henry MacDonald?
BROWNE: Yes. Henry T. MacDonald. If you know anything about a yak animal, he’s got this
furry mane.
COHEN: OK.
BROWNE: That’s what he looked like. So he said, “Yes, that’s a great idea. You’ll like their
school of science,” because I was taking courses at some of the colleges. While I was still in
high school I was taking some of the college courses, like AP [courses].
COHEN: Right.
http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Browne_L