Iris Brammer loved people. She also loved books and she especially enjoyed bringing people and books together. Maybe such passion helps explain why the public library in Narrows, Va., bears her name.
She worked in the Narrows library in Southwest Virginia when it was just one-room in the town hall. At first, she was a volunteer helping an older librarian; but in time, she became the librarian. She supervised the move to a two-story house which offered the expansion needed for a growing library. She read all the books before they went on her shelves and recommended books which would appeal to individual tastes and interest. She worked as librarian from 1961 until 1998 when she retired at age 80.
Fred Anderson
Josh Dickson, youth minister at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Richmond and her grandson-by-marriage, declares that he never met anyone who loved to read more than Iris. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Agatha Christie mysteries and, “most important, God's Word” were favorite books. Josh had occasion to examine one of her well-worn Bibles and discovered that, even as a librarian, she underlined and wrote in the Bible. There were words circled and marginal notes such as: “ ‘The Lord gives you strength to make your living.' ‘Jesus loves me.' ‘The Lord leads the way.' ‘Give the Lord the first and best part.' ‘Obey Him always.' ‘We are to tithe.' ” In a margin in 1 Kings she wrote, “Share what you have with others.”
Another passage which was marked was Psalm 52:8-9: “I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it; and I will wait on thy name for it is good before thy saints.” Josh said that it almost was impossible to read the 23rd Psalm because she had marked and written all over it.
Emily Brammer Chandler, a granddaughter, recalled that Iris had a way of making everyone feel special. In her old age and with little strength, she managed to read to a great-grandchild a story entitled The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. Emily feels that the tree in the story actually exemplifies her grandmother and observes, “She was always happy and eager to give.”
Indeed it was her overly-giving nature which concerned some in the family. One member shares that as long as she saw blank checks in her checkbook, she thought she just had more money to give. Her son, Charles, remembers that he was “brought up in a family that, when the church doors were opened, we were there.”
He pictures his mother as a compulsive yet willing giver. “She bought whatever the kids at Narrows High School were selling for Christmas — oranges, tangerines …. At a church program on Christmas Eve one of the children mentioned that they were not getting anything for Christmas because one of the children had medical problems. Afterwards, she said, ‘Let's go up to the house; and by the way, Son, how much money do you have on you?' ”
“Mom has given of herself and everything she had,” her son says. “I used to think she was poor, but oh what a rich Christian she was. Her philosophy was to think of somebody else first and self second. That was my Mom.”
Iris's love for children found another outlet during her tenure as a board member of the Virginia Baptist Children's Home. Her church work in Narrows included teaching in the Sunday school, the WMU, the missions activities for children, the Girls' Auxiliary, choir and Training Union. There scarcely was a part of church life which eluded her. She was born in June 1918 in Greenville, S.C.; and it was at age 8 or 9 that under the influence of a caring Sunday school teacher, she gave her heart to Jesus.
Howard Wallman had led religious crusades in the United Kingdom and somehow Iris got his name. “She asked me to come and talk with her and her husband, William, and she examined me to see if I was on the up and up.” In 1975 she went with Wallman on a lay mission trip to England. Year after year, she went until she had been on seven teams. She also went on lay mission trips to Brazil, Israel, Egypt and Kenya. Wallman recalls a memory of Iris sitting in a town square in Brazil and just talking, one on one, with a young woman about Jesus. It was nothing unusual. It was what she did all the time in Narrows. Iris Brammer once confessed: “I don't have but one talent. My talent which God has given to me is the talent of love.”
Courtney “Buddy” Woodson Jr. knew Iris when he was pastor for two years at First Baptist Church in Narrows. “My first Sunday at the church, Mrs. Brammer had just been moved up from the children's class to the older women's class, ‘The Willing Workers Class.' She introduced me to the class and to the public library. I remember going to the library with our two children and there she was greeting us just as she did everybody who came into the library with an exuberant: ‘Jesus loves you and so do I.' ”
In her old age she moved to Richmond to be closer to family. Her daughter, Ruth Brammer Nester, goes to Oak Grove Church, but she never expected her mother to join. “She surprised me,” says Ruth. “Mother said, ‘If I am going to be here, I am going to be a member.' She was full of surprises!”
Easter has added meaning this year for the family of Ruby Iris Cashion Brammer. She died last summer at age 89. She died still wanting to take another missions trip. There was no possibility of it, yet in her mind and heart she wanted to share the Good News with one more person somewhere in the wide world. Iris Brammer's giving life was itself the greatest testimony and such a life keeps on giving through the influences she made.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.