Memphian’s valentines spread love to people who don’t otherwise get any

Profile/human interest story for The Commercial Appeal

February 14, 2010

Dixie Brown is not your typical cupid. She has no wings, no bow and arrow, and cherubic may have been an adjective used to describe her more than five decades ago when she married and moved south from Brookline, Mass.

Yet every year since 1979, Brown has helped to put a smile on people’s faces by sending out hundreds of “penny cards” to the elderly, who normally may not receive anything on Valentine’s Day.

The cards started as an extension of her work with Sacred Heart Church here and her visitations with shut-ins.

“I met a retired first-grade teacher, and the good Lord whispered in my ear that I could send her a valentine,” Brown said, “and that year she got 25 of them and it tickled her.”… (read more)