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Published February 20 in the Lexington Herald Leader Slain firefighter is buried in hometown By
ANDY MEAD STURGIS - She was a tomboy. A polite, well-mannered girl. A standout basketball player. An entrepreneur who sold Kool-Aid to thirsty boys. The people who knew Brenda Cowan in the first part of her 40-year life came to say goodbye yesterday at a black cemetery on the edge of this Western Kentucky town. Cowan, who was killed last Friday while responding to a domestic violence call, was known in Lexington as the city's first female African-American firefighter. Her death, and the death of Fontaine Hutchinson, whom she was trying to help, have been widely reported. So has the arrest of Hutchinson's husband, Patrick, who has been charged with two counts of murder. The esteem with which she was held in Lexington -- and the effect of her death -- was made clear yesterday when her body arrived at High Hill Cemetery accompanied by Lexington Mayor Teresa Isaac, 20 Lexington firefighters and a dozen Lexington police officers. But the people waiting at the cemetery knew little about that part of her life. The Brenda Cowan they remembered was a minister's daughter, the second-youngest child in a well-known, well-behaved family. "We used to do some crazy things," said Vanessa Lee, who grew up next to Cowan on King Street in the Boxtown section of Sturgis. "We would go to the store and buy Kool-Aid and M&Ms, then sell it to the boys who were playing basketball in the back yard to make money." Cowan developed into a basketball player herself, averaging 12 points and 7 rebounds a game in her last two years playing for the Union County High School Bravettes. She was named Most Valuable Player in 1979 and 1981. Cowan was the daughter of the Rev. Tabb Frank Scott Cowan Sr., the minister at New Salem Baptist Church, and Ella Irene Dawson Cowan, who -- for reasons no one could recall yesterday -- was known as Miss Noopy. The family was well known in town even before Freddie Cowan, one of Brenda's three brothers, won a national basketball championship as part of the University of Kentucky's 1978 team. People in Sturgis say the elder Cowans were strict parents who made sure their children studied and always said "sir" and "ma'am." "Every year I got a letter from the parents -- and I guess the other teachers did too -- thanking me for teaching their kids," said Keith Omer, a former teacher and coach at Sturgis Junior High School who now is the county's assistant school superintendent. Sturgis once made nationwide news in an unfortunate way. In 1956, a white citizens' council blocked eight black students from entering Sturgis High School. Then-Gov. A.B. "Happy" Chandler sent 200 National Guardsmen and 28 Kentucky State Police to protect the children as they desegregated the school. Yesterday, both blacks and whites gathered to pay their respects to Cowan. "Today is the first day you don't see any color," said Zelinda Fellows, who also was a childhood friend of Cowan. Sturgis is an old coal town with a dwindling population. About 2,000 people live here. About one in 10 is African-American. "It's been a coal mining community, but the coal mines are mostly closed down and most of the people now work someplace else," Sturgis Mayor Mike Cowan said in an interview Wednesday. The mayor is white and not related to Brenda Cowan. A number of the 100 people who attended Cowan's burial yesterday once lived in Sturgis, but now live someplace else. Like Brenda, the Cowan children all moved away. Miss Noopy Cowan died a number of years ago. The Rev. Cowan died in September. Brenda was buried next to both of them yesterday. The burial in Sturgis was brief. There were three short prayers. Roses were taken from bouquets and handed to family members and others. Then there was lots of talking, lots of catching up, lots of hugs.
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