Who was Margaret Root Brown?
A Southwestern Alumna, Philanthropist, and art patron whose legacy permeates the campus.
Margaret Root Brown was born on July 21, 1895 in Taylor, Texas, to James Leper Root and South Carolina Root. She had two older siblings, Daniel Root and Florence (Florra) Root Cody, who both attended Southwestern University alongside her. During her time at the University, Root Brown joined Alpha Delta Pi sorority. She was also listed as a member of the school’s art department that aided in the illustrations of the yearbook The Sou’Wester. Her activities and trips were often mentioned in the school’s newspaper as she was noted to be one of the “society belles” of the school. She graduated in 1915 with her A.B. degree after just three years of enrollment, and moved to Belton where she became a teacher.
In 1917, she met Herman Brown at a dance in Georgetown. Later that year, on September 9th, 1917 the couple decided to elope. After receiving financial support from Daniel Root, Herman established Georgetown as the first center of Brown and Root Industrial Services, an infrastructure company that started out in road construction, which allowed his wife to be very active in the community.
During this time Margaret became interested in art collection and was a part of the Texas Fine Arts Association, where she sponsored prizes for artists. In 1943 Margaret and Herman adopted seven year old Louisa Stude, who went on to marry Fayez Sarofim in 1962, and soon after, her brother Micajah.
In 1947, the Browns moved to River Oaks in Houston where they lived near George and Alice Brown. Despite growing increasingly ill due to lung problems that probably stemmed from having emphysema as a child, Margaret continued to be an avid reader and served on boards of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Houston Foundation of Ballet. She was also a member of St. Paul’s Methodist Church.
Margaret Root Brown was very loyal to her alma mater and is likely one of the reasons why the Brown Foundation made continuous gifts to the University. The Brown's major contributions to Southwestern include gifts of fine art and rare books, in addition to financial support. In 1952, she had Herman send a Brown and Root crew to the campus to plant trees and rose bushes at no cost to the University. After the opening of the Alma Thomas Fine Arts center, she highlighted the new gallery by sponsoring a series of exhibitions in 1957. The following year, she provided a new series of six shows in an attempt to rotate shows so that students would always have a new exhibition to look at when they met in the auditorium for compulsory assembly every week.
Margaret Root Brown was also a philanthropist and particularly interested in funding the attendance of international students at Southwestern. The only two stipulations being that “the student had to speak adequate English in order to participate effectively in classes and had to return to his or her own country on graduation.” Her scholarships for these students began in 1950 and continued until her death. In January 1963, she passed away from a pulmonary insufficiency at the Methodist Hospital, two months after her husband’s passing.
Margaret Root Brown is remembered in multiple places on campus in prominent and subtle ways. This pin is located at the place where her portrait hangs, on the second floor of the Collen Building.
