DORIS EARL (BROWN) HOWARD

Doris Earl (Brown) Howard, sixth child and youngest daughter of Joseph V. and Nancy (Bullard) Brown was born on April 10, 1915 in her family's home in the city of Hamilton, Texas. She started school at Bloodworth, but her family moved to Aleman, then Ellis County, Johnson County, and finally Tarrant County about 1923. Doris attended elementary schools in Lillian and Mansfield, then William James Jr. High School, and Polytechnic High School. She graduated from Ft. Worth's Central High School in the Spring of 1934, and began working for Ft. Worth Poultry and Egg where an explosion and subsequent leaking of ammonia effected serious damage to her lungs. Soon thereafter, she contracted Tuberculosis, which Doctors attributed to this disaster. At that time, the only treatment for the disease was complete bedrest, so she was isolated to the Texas State Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Carlsbad, (Tom Greene County) Texas for about a year, after which she transitioned to Elmwood Sanatorium in Ft. Worth. During this time, she honed her art and drawing talent. A petite woman of strong resolve, Doris had dark hair, fair complexion, and blue eyes. She was an active member of Berry Street Baptist Church. On December 20, 1942, she married Leroy Howard at the home of her parents in Ft. Worth, Texas, and they settled into his country-home outside Kennedale, Texas, where she continued her paintings. No children were born from this union. After several months, they moved with his job to Corpus Christi, Texas. At age 29, Doris died on September 19, 1945 in Refugio, Texas from reaction to an Adrenalin injection for an Asthma attack while en route to Ft. Worth from their Corpus Christi home. She is buried in the Brown Family plot at Laurel Land Cemetery in Ft. Worth.