Brown Family

IRVINE, Calif. -- The family of Nicole Brown Simpson plans to create a foundation for battered women in her name and to immerse themselves in the fight against domestic violence, the slain woman's mother and sisters said yesterday.Juditha Brown again declined to say whether she believes that her murdered daughter was a battered woman."That's not an answer I can give yet," Mrs. Brown said. "We have to wait a while longer on that."In 1989, O. J. Simpson -- now on trial for the murders of his former wife and her friend Ronald L. Goldman -- pleaded no contest to abusing Ms. Simpson.

Christopher Brown's family and other supporters gathered in Towson again to protest what they believe are weak charges brought against the police officer charged in the teen's death. The crowd gathered outside the Baltimore County Circuit courthouse Monday - exactly two months after Brown's death - to lobby the state's attorney's office to consider murder charges against James D. Laboard. The Baltimore County officer faces manslaughter charges. The family's attorney, Russell Neverdon, said he believes Laboard could have received a stricter second-degree murder charge given that Laboard chased Brown before the teen died from asphyxiation.

The teens were throwing rocks and ringing doorbells at random houses in their Randallstown neighborhood — mischief so common they borrowed a name long linked to pranksters' shenanigans: "knicker-knocking. " Christopher Brown had expressed disapproval of the vandalism that had residents complaining to police. But a friend said the high school junior and church usher — dubbed "Mr. Congeniality" by his teachers — reluctantly agreed to join the prowl late Wednesday. They approached a house on Susanna Road, according to a friend, who said he accompanied a separate group trailing behind Brown.

The teens were throwing rocks and ringing doorbells at random houses in their Randallstown neighborhood — mischief so common they borrowed a name long linked to pranksters' shenanigans: "knicker-knocking. " Christopher Brown had expressed disapproval of the vandalism that had residents complaining to police. But a friend said the high school junior and church usher — dubbed "Mr. Congeniality" by his teachers — reluctantly agreed to join the prowl late Wednesday. They approached a house on Susanna Road, according to a friend, who said he accompanied a separate group trailing behind Brown.

LOS ANGELES -- With the news media's "Camp O. J." ordered to move away from O. J. Simpson's Brentwood estate, attention turned yesterday to the two young children who once lived there with him.Uncertainty over custody of the children continued, with their maternal grandparents appearing to waver in their willingness to turn them over to Mr. Simpson. The children were back with the Brown family in Dana Point, an hour's drive south of Mr. Simpson's home.Juditha Brown, mother of the slain Nicole Brown Simpson, said it was difficult to let go of her grandchildren when they were reunited with their father on Wednesday for the first time in more than a year.

For the Brown family of East Baltimore, the Fourth of July reunion -- a giant cookout in Druid Hill Park -- was a jubilant affair."I been dancing, helping, enjoying myself, meeting other parts of my family I never met before," said Hershey Lawrence, 18, one of about 400 people who attended the reunion that was fragrant with the smell of grilling meats and rich with signs of family attachments.After beginning preparations in January, the family raised $2,000, corralled the 400 attendees from around the country and rented an 18-foot truck to transport boxes of watermelon, games of Twister and tons and tons of food.

The Firm Foundation Worship Center in Carroll County is continuing its mission to help those in need, undeterred by what many in the small congregation felt was a rebuff from the most recent recipients of their kindness. Church members spent last week repairing a home lent for two months to a family that fled hurricane-devastated Louisiana. The family returned to the Gulf Coast last week, leaving the home in disarray, littered with trash and unwanted clothing. Graffiti were spray-painted in black letters on the exterior white siding.

Camouflaged from head to toe, with a night vision scope for seeing and a "whisper microphone" for talking, Dean D'Camera crawled into thewoods to take up surveillance of the Brown family's house on Spring Road in Laurel's rural Bacontown section.And he carried his gun. The suspected drug dealers inside would be coming out to patrol the property's perimeter, carrying flashlights and weapons, leading a pit bull on a leash."We pretty much laid on our bellies in the bushes. I guess we were 50 feet from the house," Officer D'Camera recalled.

A New York auction of more than 300 pieces of space memorabilia took in more than $443,000 over the weekend, including $18,400 paid by a Scarsdale lawyer for a plastic toothbrush carried to the moon by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin. But two of the most poignant items in the sale - a flight suit and helmet offered by the family of Columbia astronaut David Brown - were withdrawn after NASA told the family the equipment was still government property. Officials at Swann Galleries said the two Brown items had been expected to sell for at least $48,000.

IN HIS 22 years as a "Wall Street Week" panelist, fund manager Eddie C. Brown has shown his prowess as a stock picker. "I believe in investing to promote growth and achievement," he explains. He is putting some family money where his mouth is. He and his wife, Sylvia, are donating $6 million to the Maryland Institute, College of Arts, which will name its soon-to-be-built Center for Art & Design Technology in honor of the Brown family. When the Bolton Hill college's main building was constructed after the Great Fire of 1904, Andrew Carnegie was the major donor.

As Jamie Brown shifts his gaze upward and squints at a pair of tall barns backed by a cloudless October sky, the reverence in his voice is nearly as clear as the autumn sun's rays. All around him at Triadelphia Lake View Farm, families are taking advantage of an unusually pretty day to pet farm animals, take hayrides and pick pumpkins. Layers of peeling red paint on the barns distinguish the two oldest structures on the 100-acre Glenelg farm at the end of meandering Triadelphia Road.

Even the rich shared their homes with strangers in order to make ends meet in early Maryland. And their children, like the children of the working class and the slaves, were given household responsibilities at the youngest ages. Visitors to Historic London Town and Gardens, a 23-acre park featuring history and archaeology in southern Anne Arundel County, can now get an intimate look at the lives of three families as they lived when this town was Maryland's most important port city.

On the Monday after that horrible winter weekend last year, when everyone was still in shock about the Browning family - a mother and father shot to death by their teenage son, two boys shot to death by their older brother - Jonathan Sindler, the band director at Cockeysville Middle School, saw a hand go up among his students. The shootings had claimed two from his percussion section - Greg, 14, and Ben, 11 - and the boys and girls who had played with the Browning brothers wanted to do something.

As mourners shuffled into pews, images flashed on a screen above the altar: The couple dancing on their wedding day, the husband's strong arms wrapped around his wife. Their three sons posing in Christmas sweaters, all chubby cheeks and big smiles. The boys in recent years, shaggy-haired and gangly, clowning on a snow-covered mountain. Throughout the church, parents clutched their adolescent children, looked at the photos of a family who appeared very much like them, and wept. Nearly 1,300 people gathered in a Baltimore County church yesterday to remember the Browning family - parents John, 45, and Tamara, 44, and their sons Greg, 14, and Ben, 11, who were fatally shot in their Cockeysville home last weekend.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- A simple white trellis made of plastic and metal, with a red bow on top and gold treble clefs at the sides, surrounded James Brown's statue on Broad Street here in his hometown. Christmas lights were threaded through the frame, which was anchored by steel wires and sandbags. A cocked Santa hat sat on Brown's head, and a backstage pass from the Imperial Theatre's "12 Bands of Christmas" concert hung around his neck. It was kind of sad, really, like a front-yard decoration people drive by and never notice.

Ever since his son Sam was born five years ago, David Brown has observed the Sabbath with his family, singing, praying and enjoying a large meal in their Pikesville home. For Orthodox Jews like the Brown family, the time between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday is a holiday during which work, even flicking a light switch, should be avoided. "One of my biggest fears, one of the things I never wanted to happen, was for my family to sit down for Shabbos dinner and to have my chair be empty," he said.

The Brown family of Louisiana fled Hurricane Katrina with nothing. The DiMaggio family and its Westminster church, the Firm Foundation Worship Center, had a vacant home and the desire to help. But what seemed like a fortunate connection gradually dissolved into a flurry of accusations and bruised feelings. Sandra and Keith Brown, who drove to Carroll County after the hurricane with seven of their eight children, say their hosts were patronizing and disrespectful. The DiMaggios said the Browns left the house in disarray and didn't appreciate all the community had done for them.

Investor Eddie C. Brown announced yesterday that his family's foundation would donate $5 million to provide educational and personal support to Baltimore's African-American middle-school children. The Turning the Corner Achievement Program will focus on two of Baltimore's poorest neighborhoods, providing academic help in addition to health, social and employment services. The targeted neighborhoods, one on each side of the city, will be selected later this year. Last year, the Brown family donated $6 million to the Maryland Institute College of Art for a new campus building and created a $1 million endowment at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

The Firm Foundation Worship Center in Carroll County is continuing its mission to help those in need, undeterred by what many in the small congregation felt was a rebuff from the most recent recipients of their kindness. Church members spent last week repairing a home lent for two months to a family that fled hurricane-devastated Louisiana. The family returned to the Gulf Coast last week, leaving the home in disarray, littered with trash and unwanted clothing. Graffiti were spray-painted in black letters on the exterior white siding.