Lois Loehr Brown ’41 couldn’t have articulated exactly what she felt the spring she graduated from Mary Washington. But she would carry the buoyant feeling with her when she interviewed for – and landed – her first teaching job in Middlesex County, Virginia, that autumn. Brown possessed it when, after moving to Detroit with her young family after World War II, she was required to take a speech class so the locals could understand her. And she carried it with her on solo travels all over the world – including East Africa, Israel, China, and the Soviet Union. “I didn’t realize at the time, but when I came out of Mary Washington, I felt confidence,” said Brown, 95, a longtime class agent who lives in Annandale, Virginia. The great-granddaughter of Prussian immigrants and the granddaughter of a Confederate soldier, Brown grew up in the shadow of Robert E. Lee’s bronze likeness in Richmond. She headed to Fredericksburg in the fall of 1937 to pursue a degree in physical … [Read more...]