FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) – Kentucky has said its final farewell to Gov. John Y. Brown Jr. A private service was held Wednesday at the State Capitol as loved ones remembered the moments that made Brown’s life one well lived.
“‘I felt very lucky, very fortunate, been blessed even sitting in the hospital for nine hours, I mean it’s a challenge, but I can’t complain.’ That was such a common refrain we’d hear from dad. ‘I can’t complain,’ no matter what happened to him, nothing got him down he would just forge ahead after each setback,” Brown’s daughter Pamela Brown Wright said.
His children shared stories of a man they describe as being both larger than life but still just a regular guy, who always brimmed with positivity.
“It’s a beautiful day, hope y’all are having a good day, life is good, ok? Let’s go for it,” Brown Jr. said in a video that played for the gathered mourners.
“Growing up I heard over and over again how important it is to learn how to sell yourself and your ideas. Till the end of his life, he carried in his wallet a copy of the check – his first paycheck- from Encyclopedia Britannica where he learned to sell door-to-door,” Brown’s son John Y. Brown III said during his eulogy.
From the inspirational moments that defined what made his career to the more intimate and often humorous stories that made Brown’s character so colorful. Brown III retold one story about his father suddenly leaving a dinner with former colleagues.
“My mom called me and said ‘is everything okay with your dad? He left right after this dinner he set up and started.’ I said I don’t know I’ll call him so I called my dad and he said ‘Oh yeah, I got there and they were all so old and boring, I just couldn’t take it. I had to get out of there,’” Brown III said to the amusement of many attending.
But for every laugh there was also a tear; a reminder of what makes saying goodbye so hard.
“He finally gave me the greatest compliment of my life, the one that meant far more than all the rest combined. He said son, you taught me what real love is, you taught me what family is. Thank you for sticking with me through everything we went through. And it wasn’t until this week that I realized how much he really taught me about what true love is,” Brown’s son Lincoln said.
Mourners heard many more moving stories throughout the service – including some from Brown’s final days. His children said he never lost his joyful spirit and while in the hospital he wrote down that he was the happiest he’d ever been.
Brown is being interred in the Lexington Cemetery. He was 88 years old.