By Sarah Mahan

The Selma Times-Journal

MARION — Few things preserve Southern culture better than a descriptive story written by an author who calls the South home. Family, friends and literature lovers celebrate the life of a local contributor to Southern literary history.

Author Mary Ward Brown passed away last Friday in Marion at the age of 95, following a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, Brown, a notable short-story author, grew up in Hamburg.

After graduating from Judson College in Marion as an English and journalism double major, she briefly lived in Auburn before returning to Hamburg with her husband and son to live in her family home.

The encyclopedia says Brown was best known for her focus on Southern culture, especially the religious and racial aspects of southern life. Her literary works were also featured in the Best American Short Stories Collection of 1983 and 1984.

Her work also received several more recent awards, including her second Alabama Author Awards from the Alabama Library Association in 2002 and the Hillsdale Fiction Prize from the Fellowship of Southern Writers in 2003.

Becky Nichols, director of the Selma-Dallas County Public Library, compared Brown’s literary value to that of local author Kathryn Tucker Windham.

“She’s in the same category as Kathryn Tucker Windham in that she is impossible to fully describe in value. Her stories however are a real contrast to Windham’s,” Nichols said. “They are truly powerful, marvelous stories about redemption and forgiveness.”

She often visited the public library to share her love of literature with other residents.

“Mary Ward was always encouraging to fellow writers, and so naturally she came out to support the writers that came to the library,” Nichols said.

Nichols described Brown as a “gentle and wonderful person,” who loved reading and literature.

“She would enter a room quietly but everyone would notice her,” Nichols said. “When you sit with her, she would just draw you in, much in the same way you become drawn to her stories.”

Brown leaves behind not only family and friends, but a celebrated literary legacy.