Interview with Lee F. Browne - Caltech Oral Histories

Browne–4
So I did most of what she wanted me to do. And then one time she let me spend a couple of
years with a minister and his wife. Reverend Tipp.
COHEN: And you lived with them?
BROWNE: I lived with them. They lived in Badin, North Carolina. That’s where Alcoa has a
plant. That’s where the first Alcoa plant was.
COHEN: Aluminum?
BROWNE: Yes. So I’d scout all around through that plant and spend time with him. His wife,
though, was a very, very gifted woman.
COHEN: Now, how old were you?
BROWNE: Oh, I must have been about seven or eight.
COHEN: Oh, so you were still small.
BROWNE: Yes, I was small. But I had been exposed to all this stuff. In fact, I only went to
school one year when I was with the Tipps. But Mrs. Tipp was gifted. She played the piano and
led the choir in the church. And she entered me in contests, verbal contests: “What is the name
of this animal?” And “Pronounce this word.” And I was a kid of the minister, so I was a typical
minister’s kid—you know, knowledgeable, well-dressed, and all that sort of stuff. But finally
[after] about two years of that my mother became jealous, and she wanted me back. [Chuckle]
So I went back to High Point with her. And we took a house and we lived there, but she kept
pushing me to do certain kinds of things about studying. Now, her mother was still living—the
grandmother I was talking about. And she was a leader in the community for killing hogs. See,
High Point was a city, but there were big fields. And there was a place where they had all these
hogs that they fed and kept. They’d start off little—small animals—and then they’d get to be
400 and 500 pounds. And then she would take the men out there. And she was the leader of this
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