Today's Featured Biography

 
Deborah Lott Brown

I only attended North High for two years, then went directly to the University of MN. Two years later I married my high school boyfriend, then had my first son at the age of 21, just prior to finishing my bachelor’s degree from what was then the university’s college Science, Literature, and the Arts.

We moved to Seattle, back to Minneapolis, then England (Great Malvern, Worcestershire) where I had my second son. A few years after returning to the Twin Cities we divorced. (Everything you’ve heard about marrying too young is true–at least from my perspective.) With two young children I began working in the local public schools as a teacher’s aide so my hours and vacations would dovetail with the kids’ schedule. And I went back to grad school, this time in horticulture, as I found all things plant-related fascinating, and horticulture was more practical than botany.

As I was about to graduate, a position opened up in the department of Horticultural Science on the St. Paul campus. I thought they’d never hire internally, but I needed practice interviewing–and I actually got the job. I taught an undergraduate course each year, but primarily worked with Extension, heading a gardening information service on campus, teaching Master Gardeners, and traveling throughout the state presenting outreach programs in horticulture.

If you still live in Minnesota, you might have seen my name in the newspaper or heard me on the radio. I appeared on WCCO for a number of years, then switched to Minnesota Public Radio, where I was the “garden guru” on programs with Bob Potter, Katherine Lanpher, and finally, Kerri Miller.

I retired after twenty-nine years, partly in response to how much more difficult the job had become due to financial cutbacks, and partly to help care for my ailing mother, who passed away about a year later at 95.

I love to read, tend my plants, go to the theater, concerts, and movies, and meet friends for lunch. I’m also a word game nut, with Scrabble and Boggle my favorites (at least when I’m winning.) I spend way too much of my time on the computer playing Lexulous, a scrabble-like game, with friends and ex-students from all over the country.

Like many of you, grandchildren are the light of my life. My grandson is a senior at Bradley University in Peoria, IL, and my granddaughter is freshman at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA.

I enjoy spending time with my brother and sister-in-law at their home in Napa, CA, and try to get to Florida or southern California each winter to escape some of the cold.

And that’s probably more than enough from someone who never even graduated from North!

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