"Berthita" was born to a devoutly Catholic mother and a humble and repentant Mormon father. When Bertha was born her father was 59 and her mother was nearly 22.  Right from the beginning Bertha, the second child and first daughter of this marriage, benefited from the sagacity and patience of her father and the energy and talents of her mother.  Her father was kind and doting, her mother high spirited and preoccupied.

Life began for Berthita in Ciudad Juaréz, Mexico, a city just south of the border of El Paso, Texas. Her father's parentage was Irish-English with a bit of Dutch.  Her mother's parentage was Mexican with perhaps a bit of Spanish and French.  As a result she learned much about the Mexican people and the Anglo community.  She was fortunate to learn both the English and Spanish languages.

Bertha's father's livelihood involved a necessity for him to travel a great deal. Orson traded and drove cattle and horses across three states and two countries.  Orson had mining and lumber interests in many remote areas of the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora. Often he would become involved in other business ventures outside the proximity of the very rural Mormon Colonies. Orson enjoyed the outdoors and held a wanderlust for new opportunities.  He was also a lawman for many years and in the Mormon militia.  Bertha adored him and all the stories he shared about his travels.

Bertha E. Brown - "La Marseillesa" c. 1938, 16 years old

In 1925, shortly after Orson was readmitted into the Mormon Church and his fourth child, Aaron, was born, the family moved from Ciudad Juárez to Namiquipa, a small mining town, to be closer to where Orson's business was keeping him.  This proved to be too primitive for Angela and the children so around a year later they moved to Colonia Dublán where there were schools and opportunities for the children.

In Dublán Bertha met and enjoyed many friends. She became a tagalong sister to her three brothers.  Her oldest brother, Gustavo, was particularly bothered to have her in his shadow, and as the older brother he took many opportunities to hurt her feelings. Among the worst and longest lasting of his teases was his insistence that she was not really a part of the family and not really related to her daddy and mother.  Gus would unrelentingly torment Bertha with his story that one of the vagrant Tarahumara Indians that Angela would feed on the porch steps had left Bertha there to be cared for and raised by the Brown family. This caused her great agony. In little Berthita's view, everyone in her family was fair skinned and had lighter hair than hers, therefore, Gus must be telling her something her parents did not want her to know.  This uncertainty was a basis of Bertha's insecurities for most of her life.

Bertha's father had served as Bishop of Colonia Morelos and also as President of the Mexican branch in Colonia Dublán, and a number of other unusual callings for the Church.  In these capacities his family became very close to the Mexican people as they taught and served them.  The Mormon colonies were a very close knit community of Americans. The instructions handed down from Salt Lake City to the Anglo Mormons was to 'Baptize them, don't marry them'. These policies were most likely issued in an attempt to protect and insulate the relocated polygamous Mormons in their estranged situation. Salt Lake City seemed to feel a duty not only to give spiritual guidance and ensure distance from the Catholic Church but also from the Mexican culture and people.

As a child Bertha described her childhood as containing many happy experiences, however, as Bertha grew into adolescence Bertha was accumulating deep layers of emotional injury from being discriminated against as a "quatrona", a child of mixed cultural background. Many times she and her siblings would have to protect each other from peer hostilities.

Secondly, Bertha was a child who had a father who was related to many of the colonies' American families. Because of his Church sanctioned previous four polygamous marriages Orson had 25 grown, living children and their relatives in and around Dublán. Bertha felt that these American families in the colonies did not view her and her family on equal terms and in large part she felt excluded by them.

Angela January 8, 1953	Grandma Maria January 8, 1953

Bertha's mother and grandmother were both devout Catholics.  Concurrent to this, Orson's calling by the Mormon Church for a number of years was as the ecclesiastic leader of Mexican congregations.  Bertha and her family loved these innocent and happy people.

On March 20 1929 Bertha's mother, Angela, was baptized into the Mormon religion and was very active in the women's organization of the Church.  Bertha was active in her Church work. She would teach the very young and the teenagers. She provided wonderful lessons and activities, following the example of her mother and father.  As she grew older she found it difficult to understand why there was a separation, an American congregation separate from the Mexican congregation. It seemed to be based on more than just language differences. As she grew up her confusion led her to feeling ashamed of her Mexican heritage, feeling a need to cover it up or discount it, alternately she would feel ashamed for denying kinship to the good Mexican people she loved. Bertha learned their songs and their dances. She performed the flamenco with castanets, dressed in the traditional red dress with white polka dots and ball fringe, for many years in Dublán, El Paso, and later in Michigan.

Bertha, Martha, half-sister Vera Romney Brown, Mary Brown, c. 1946

Bertha was a beautiful young woman and she was very popular with the young people. Her father enlisted the aide of her three brothers to always keep an eye on her. She resented that she was always being spied on but also enjoyed the devotion of her family.  Her mother nicknamed her "La Marseillesa" after the very proud and regal anthem of France.

Martha G. Brown, 2, Bertha Brown, 19
Photo courtesy of Martha Brown

Dr. Ignacio Ernesto Gonzalez, brother of Lilia Gonzalez Brown, remembers that when he was around 16 years of age, his father, Manrique Gonzalez, and O.P. Brown were trying to make marital arrangements for him and Bertha. The two youngesters had both been born on the very same day. Ernesto was busy working hard at his education and the match never did take place.

On May 23, 1943 Bertha was called to serve a mission to the Mexican people. She served in Toluca, Pueblo and Cuautla.  During this time she was able to meet a number of the higher authorities of the Mormon Church and she served as a guide and translator for Apostle David O. McKay during his stays in Mexico. This was an experience she treasured very much. A missionary serving at the same time as Bertha, Elder Dan Taylor, remembers how enthusiastic and unstoppable Bertha was when proselyting, "She would walk right into the house and back to the kitchen where she would talk about cooking and other familial duties and would end up with an appointment to teach the Gospel to the family. Bertha came up with more contacts than we had missionaries or time to teach them." One of Bertha's best companions was Maureen Wood.

Bertha and Gustavo's Missionary Grouip - Pres Arwell Pierce

As missionaries during the seventh and eighth year since the Third Convention and the Mexican government's close scrutiny of all clergy and churches, the Mormon church used the MIA and social activities to reach the people. The missionaries would sing about gospel principles. Oscar Bluth would sing tenor, Bertha "had a beautiful soprano voice, Erma Farnsworth could sing a wonderful alto, and Keith Bowman would sing bass. They would sing acapella in four part harmony, preaching the Gospel by singing hymns on any occasion."

Elder LaSelle Taylor and Elder Samuel Keith Bowman were tracting their first day in Toluca when they walked across the street from their "Casa de Oracion" to a large athletic park. They went into a big gymnasium and were greeted by Senor Filiberto Navas de Valdez, head of the Athletic Department of the State of Mexico. They told him they were missionaries. Bowman had made a name for himself by playing basketball on some local award winning teams. Senor Navas challenged the missionaries to throw a shotput. After some joustling and good humored competition Senor Navas told the Elders that he had a son that was athletic like them and that he wanted to introduce him to the Elders so they could associate together. "I want him to live a good clean life and be like you", he said. Elder S.Keith Bowman wrote that "When Aureliano Everardo Navas de Molina , nicknamed "Nano" came to meet us he was truly a good , handsome, big young man, physically fit, and very friendly. We became friends immediately and LaSelle and I took him home with us to talk and get better acquainted. He spent his free time with us and came to work with us in Toluca. Bertha and Nano really hit it off and fell in love. It was love at first sight."

After her release from her mission Bertha began to communicate through letters to this young man who had been recently baptized in Toluca. They were both very much in love and made a very handsome couple. Orson was relieved to see his Berthita find a good Mormon man to marry in the Temple.  Bertha and Nano had a double wedding with her brother Pauly and his fiancée, Lilia Gonzalez.  Bertha's skill at sewing can be seen in photographs of her wedding dress and veil.  She was a beautiful bride.

Bertha's brother Aaron was released from his mission and traveled with Nano by train to Ciudad Juárez then onto Colonia Dublán.  They had a reception in the cultural hall of the American branch and the whole place was full. Orson danced with the two brides and Angela was so happy.  Mary was Bertha's bridesmaid. The next day the two couples traveled by train to El Paso and by bus to Mesa, Arizona where they were married and sealed in the Mesa Temple.  Anna Petrie Encke invited all her club friends and neighbors and provided the newlywed foursome with a lovely reception at her home. Anna's mother Eliza Skousen (Orson's fourth ex-wife) was living with Anna and she attended the reception. Eliza's other two daughters, Gwen, was in California, and Elizabeth, was in New York, so they did not attend.

Within two months of this marriage, Orson Pratt Brown died at the age of 83.  Bertha was devastated. She had been very close to her father all her life and would suffer terribly whenever he was gone from their home for any extended period of time. He was everything a father could be to a girl and her heart was partially buried with him.

Nano and Bertha returned to Mexico and Bertha soon took a job at a grand hotel where she made reservations and interpreted for tourists.  She had a tremendous salary for being bilingual and she was such an attractive young lady.  Nano was with his physical education job.  Soon Bertha found out she was pregnant.  Their letters home were always about "Orhito", their expected baby's namesake for Orson.  When Bertha had to quit her job in her 8^th month, Nano took her to Toluca to live with his parents. She felt like she was a burden to the family especially when at dinnertime Nano's sister looked at her plate and said, "You sure eat a lot!"

Nano and Bertha were able to rent the living quarters usually used by the elders and sister missionaries that were not being used.  That was the break Bertha needed. Nano was now working in Puebla and only came on week-ends. Here she was safe as the chapel was always having services of different kinds and missionaries were always around.

As events turned out Nano was very involved and absorbed in completing his college work and in his teaching so they missed Orson's funeral.  Bertha kept busy, living in a courtyard apartment on Las Calles de Plutarco Gonzalez Number 22 in Toluca. She was teaching English to business executives from the United States who wanted to do business in Mexico. She also did sewing and tailoring.

A year after the wedding, Bertha and Nano were blessed with a little girl, not the little "Orhito" they were expecting. They named her after Nano's mother, Lucia. Their second child, was also a girl, Arlene Angela, this time named after Bertha's mother.

Bertha was becoming dissatisfied with the living arrangements, she lived in Toluca while Nano lived in Matamoros.  Bertha was used to being doted on by her father and her admirers. Now she was left alone to care for two babies. To make matters worse, her Nano's occupation kept him in the company of young girls in college that admired him. Some missionaries had told Bertha that he was escorting the queen of a certain festival at the university where he taught.  Bertha's sister came to visit her and insisted that Bertha, Lucy and she take the bus to Puebla to check things out. When they arrived at the University the guard opened the door to Nano's apartment and let them in. Mary saw a couple of letters on the desk and she read them to Bertha– these they thought confirmed what she was so worried about, Nano had an admirer.  When Nano came into the apartment he greeted her passionately, as usual he picked her up – as pregnant as she was with Arlene. They walked out hand in hand and Mary was furious with her. Bertha really loved him and didn't face him with the letters.  After the visit Mary brought up the letters again and pressured her to rethink the marriage. Bertha had Arlene in November and was suffering from post-partum depression. Events between Nano and Bertha continued to get worse with the distance. Her sister continued to needle her until she agreed to return to Dublán. Mary assisted Bertha in packing up her bags and daughters and moving to Dublán to live with her mother and grandmother Maria on the farm.

From this point on life became progressively more difficult for Bertha. She filed for a divorce from Nano on January 21, 1952 in the District of Bravo, Chihuahua, and found a job at Dr. Frank Devlyn's Optical store in Ciudad Juárez. For a while she rented a room above the store. Nano refused to accept the divorce and it is rumored that he took a few punches at the attorney that drew up the papers. He consistently tried to contact Bertha for the next thirty years. Stubbornly she would not allow him to visit or see his daughters.

During Bertha's stay in Ciudad Juárez she developed her great enthusiasm for bullfights and matadors. I can remember being included in her pastime. Bertha seemed to know several of the matadors and their managers. Even though it was a sacred, private place and moment, Bertha was allowed to go into the little chapel "capilla " cloistered within the arena walls near the bullring, while the toreros offered prayers before their bullfight. On one occasion, while sitting in the barrera - the first row of seats behind the fence encircling the bull ring, the matador offered "brindis" - the dedication of the bull to Bertha. It was very exciting. Later he offered her the bulls ears after taking a lap around the arena while holding them up to the crowd. I don't know if she dated any of them but it seems she probably did. It was at occasions such as this that I stood in awe of my mother.

Another sports passion enjoyed by Bertha while in Ciudad Juárez was boxing and wrestling. She had regular tickets and let nothing get in her way for attendance. On one occasion she took me along and gave my hair a permanent while watching and yelling at the contenders. When the setting solution was applied, seating was found higher up in an empty area, and we left the match only briefly to make a quick run to the bathroom to rinse out the solution from my hair at the prescribed time.

In 1952 Angela unhappily sold the family homestead in Colonia Dublán and was taken to El Paso with her mother Maria and daughter Martha.  Aron put the down payment on a house at 5504 Paraguay in El Paso then Bertha found it necessary to move herself, Lucy and Arlene to live there with her mother, grandmother, and sisters Mary and Martha.

When the divorce was finalized on July 4, 1952 she began to date again. Most, if not all the men the writer of this story remembers were from Fort Bliss, a nearby U.S. Army base.  There was one man, Buddy, he really liked Bertha but he was also very good and kind to Lucy and Arlene.  They had nice 'family' outings.  Arlene and Lucy thought for sure he would be their new daddy because he had asked mother to marry him. Usually they were kept hidden in Grandmother's part of the house with instructions not to make a peep. But with Buddy it was different, he wanted to include them.

Well, it was not to be. Bertha met a young G.I., George Ronald Ferrara II.  At the same time Mary was dating a G.I. nicknamed "Red", John Denny Hayden. Mary and Red married on September 10, 1953 at the house on Paraguay Drive. Two months later on November 21, 1953 Bertha married the young G.I., Ronnie. Buddy, Lucy, and Arlene were devastated. Bertha packed up their meager belongings and drove to their new home in Detroit, Michigan with Ronnie.

These three transplants were a little dismayed by the frigid climate of Detroit, Michigan in December. Bertha was not prepared for the constraints of the bitter cold.  At first Ronnie's German and Italian family was receptive and curious.  But before long their prejudice against Mexicans emerged as they joked and asked her if she had brought her own Mexican maids with her, referring to Lucy and Arlene.

Bertha was still trying to obtain a Temple divorce from Nano.  David O. McKay was now the new President of the Mormon Church. Perhaps due to his and Bertha's former acquaintance during the Mexico mission years he was being particularly careful to do the right thing for her and her salvation and to carefully consider Nano's petitions not to have the sealing cancelled.  In the meantime, Bertha gave birth on May 19, 1955 to her first son, George Ronald Ferrara II (or III depending on who is telling the story). Ronnie was happy and Bertha was radiant.  Herman Gardens, the housing project they lived in, was looking better with spring in the air and the beginnings of her new family. On May 30, 1955 Bertha's sealing to Nano was officially cancelled.

1955- -Aaron Brown's wife Jesse Whitsell Brown holding their daughter Bonnie Brown, Anna Lucia,
Bertha Brown Navas Ferrara holding her son, George R. Ferrara II.
Bonnie born March 10, 1955 and George born May 19, 1955

Master Sergeant Ronnie was working with radar and guided missiles at Southfield Michigan Army Base. Occasionally he would have to take duty in North Carolina or Virginia for three to six months.  Bertha was working at Rex Income Tax Record Company.

On October 24, 1955, nearly Nano's 34^th birthday he again wrote a letter to Bertha and asked her to contact him by phone or letter. He again declared his undying love for her and pled for reconciliation. The numerous gifts he sent to Lucy and Arlene were always destroyed by Ronnie. The dolls Nano sent to the girls were hung from the basement ceiling by Ronnie and used for target practice with his .22 rifle.

On May 25, 1956, when Georgie was just over a year old, Bertha ended her brief employment at The Machined Parts Corporation. Ronnie had been taking longer and longer out of state tours of duty.  Bertha was very depressed; she had been totally inactive in the Church since she left Nano in Toluca. Ronnie's relatives, the large families of Tessmers and Ferraras, bickered and squabbled endlessly. They would take sides against each other for months at a time. Bertha never knew whose side she should be on.  She missed her mother and other family members and the life she had had in the colonies.

Enough money was finally saved for a down payment for a new house in a new subdivision near Michigan Avenue and Ford Road.  Bertha was finally out of the housing project, Herman Gardens, in central Detroit and into a new brick three-bedroom house at 4956 Amboy Road and the corner of Midway in Dearborn Heights.

The Army provided free medical care, the doctors however were not guaranteed to have graduated from medical school, or so it seemed. Bertha's ailments multiplied. She developed arthritis and her depression found her in bed 24/7/365. The snow piled up outside and the icy winds of winter filled her heart. George, just over one year old, became Lucy's full-time responsibility, at her age of eight.  Bertha continued to be medicated for whatever the latest diagnosis happened to be. Then to everyone's surprise, Bertha was pregnant; the army doctors had been treating her for menopause. On January 4, 1958, she delivered a second son, Jeffrey Michael Ferrara. After nine months of nursing and devotion Bertha turned him over to Arlene.

Sometime during her illnesses Bertha was finally x-rayed. A large, grapefruit sized lump was found inside her hip. When dissected, an innoculation needle was found. Bertha remembered that when she received her immunizations for her mission the nurse had broken the needle in her hip but she hadn't realized that the broken end had been left lodged in her hip, til now!

Bertha's arthritis miraculously was cured with the pregnancy. She was feeling better and began to attend Church. She made friends and occupied her time with very elaborate wedding and special occasion cakes that she would decorate for people at church or for a fee.  She made all sorts of decorative items, such as hollow sugar Easter eggs.  She began to sew again.  She worked at not allowing the snow and ice to imprison her physically and spiritually. After a car accident she became more afraid of driving the treacherous winter roads.  Again she took to her bed for respite from her ailments, her disappointments, her loneliness, her children, her marriage, her life.

Ronnie was staying away even longer now, as much as a year at a time. Lucy and Arlene were entering their teen years and showing the long years of neglect.  Bertha's battle with her feelings of racial inferiority since childhood had made her ashamed of them in this predominantly Anglo culture. They felt the ravages of Bertha's disdain on more occasions than she would be proud to admit. The "Mexican maids" were emerging from their adolescence and were not prepared for what they were seeing and feeling.

On June 13, 1962 Bertha delivered her third son, David Lawrence Ferrara. It was an absolute miracle. By now, Ronnie was becoming more and more verbally abusive. When he came home it was nothing more than a visit to the war zone.  Bertha endured this arrangement until she found out that Ronnie was living with a girl, fourteen years younger, in Germany where he was stationed. Bertha filed for a divorce. The divorce was finalized on November 4, 1966. That same day Ronnie married the girl from Germany he had brought with him, Rosemarie Plendl, at the home of Ronnie's uncle Anthony Ferrara in Romeo, Michigan.

On January 27, 1967 Bertha purchased a house at 10137 Luella in El Paso, Texas.

She lived with her three sons in a warmer climate and with her family close by.  Just six months later, on June 20, 1967, her mother died suddenly in her sleep of a stroke. It was a terrible blow to Bertha and her siblings.

Bertha, with the full responsibility of providing for her three sons, made a better life for herself.  Her sons provided challenges difficult for a single mother.

Bertha's life began to improve. Bertha now had the will to dress up and to socialize. Bertha started a new life in Texas.  She joined some Greek and Turkish groups that were sponsored by the service as a hostess family in an effort to teach foreigners about the American way.  She stayed active. Unfortunately, by now her bouts with pneumonia and with depression in Michigan had left her bedridden lungs in terrible condition. She was susceptible to glandular infections and her breathing was very shallow.

Nano had never forgotten her and now Bertha became more receptive to his requests to rebuild their friendship. Bertha went down to Mexico to visit him and the places she had left behind so many years before. They were once again together.

Bertha was employed as the Director of the El Paso City-County Nutrition Center at 4824 Alberta.  She seemed to really enjoy working with the senior citizens, providing entertainment and recreational events for them and meals.  Bertha was dearly loved by "all her little people" as she called them.

May 29, 1971 - Bertha took her El Paso friends from Turkey or Greece to Agoura, CA.
Back row: Frank, Ila Murphy; Jeffrey, David, and George Ferrara

In March of 1979 Jeffrey returned from the Washington Seattle Mission. In early April Lucy and her husband and two children came from California to visit Bertha in El Paso.  Another operation, removing a part of her other lung left her worn out and constantly needing oxygen since now both lungs had been compromised. In November Bertha went to Utah to visit Arlene and her husband and four children for a couple weeks. She was visibly depleted of strength and had aged far beyond her 57 years, During this visit Bertha recorded stories from her first seventeen years of life.  She was very weak during this time and felt that her life's work was nearly over. She had seen all her children during the year and they were now adults.

On December 10^th Bertha drove herself to the Sierra Medical Center because she was having breathing trouble and her oxygen tank was not helping.  Her brother Pauly and his wife Lily visited her in the hospital. She told him "Patrona, I almost died last night, they barely brought me back in time."  On December 16^th Bertha died of severe pulmonary hypertension with right heart failure due to complications of an experimental medical procedure and the severe scarring on what remained of her lungs.

Bertha's funeral on December 19, 1979 was held at the L.D. S. Stake Center on 1212 Sumac Drive in El Paso. Interment was at Evergreen East Cemetery, 12400 E. Montana, El Paso, El Paso, Texas at Site A-14D-4.  Literally hundreds of "her little people" and friends and relatives attended both services to show her their last respects. 

On the 28^th of July 1992 Bertha and Nano's temple sealing was re-instated by petition to the First Presidency from her ever-patient and long-suffering Nano.

Click here for: Children of Bertha E. Brown Navas Ferrara

---

---

Sources:

PAF - Archer Files = Orson Pratt Brown + Angela Gabaldon > Bertha E. Brown Navas Ferrara

Bertha Brown's Book of Remembrance - courtesy of Jeffrey M. Ferrara

Lucy Brown Archer's Book of Rembrance and Treasures of Truth

Revised 11/2005

Copyright 2000 www.OrsonPrattBrown.org