Dale Brown: ‘I was trying to beat myself and I did it’
— Garth Brooks, Unanswered Prayers
When I started in this crazy career 43 years ago, my dream was to work for Sports Illustrated. I wanted to write about all the major sporting events. Fly from coast to coast. Spend weeks in hotel rooms. Be the main man in the press box.
I’m glad Sports Illustrated never called. I can’t imagine my professional life without the last 36 years covering high school, college and professional sports, then later breaking news, city council meetings, and writing daily features and weekly columns.
Throughout my career, I have been embraced by readers of this newspaper and website and those in the community. They open their hearts and allow me to open my notebook.
For that, I’m forever grateful for the unanswered prayers.
Here are the first 5 of my 10 most intriguing people of 2023, listed in alphabetical order. The rest of the top 10 will appear in Monday’s Journal-News.
Dale Brown, a heart transplant recipient, is best described as a Walking Warrior.
This year, Brown, 75, completed the 5K, or 3.1-mile, Hunger Walk, a fundraiser for the 613 agencies that partner with the Freestore Foodbank in Cincinnati.
He finished in one hour, one minute, 45 seconds.
Nearly 2,500 walkers registered and while Brown doesn’t know where he placed, he said with a laugh: “There were a lot of people behind me, but a whole lot in front of me. I impressed myself.”
His time and place seem irrelevant, really. Just finishing the walk for a man who eight years ago didn’t know if he was going to die on the operating table is quite an accomplishment.
“I was trying to beat myself and I did it,” said the 1965 Middletown High School graduate.
Todd Daniel: ‘Never so glad to be back in the U.S.’
After six months serving as a missionary in Nigeria when a government official accused Todd Daniel of being a foreign spy, he remembers landing at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
As soon as his feet hit the ground, he raced toward the drinking fountain.
“I almost sucked that thing dry,” he said with a laugh.
Six months without fresh water will make a man thirsty and appreciate the simple things we take for granted.
“Never so glad to be back in the U.S.,” he said.
Daniel recently retired as Madison Twp.’s road superintendent after 31
Tell us your story. years.
Many years ago, Daniel said the school district was getting rid of the old playground equipment from the former junior school. So the road department took the equipment apart and re-assembled it at Madison Twp. Park. The equipment was used there until recently when it failed inspection due to safety concerns.
The equipment was recently dedicated with a ribbon-cutting. Now the park has new tennis courts and paved parking lots.
That’s one of the priorities for employees as they count down the days until retirement. Leave their job better than when they were hired.
“You want things in good shape,” he said. “I feel good about leaving. I like where the township is.”
Billie Engel: ‘A day in my life I’ll never forget’
When I was invited to a Friends & Neighbors Club luncheon in Hamilton to listen to the keynote speaker, a 101-yearold woman, I figured it would be easy to spot Billie Engel in the room. But no one looked to be that age.
I was shocked when Engel was handed the microphone, and for more than 35 minutes, sat on a chair in the front of the room, and without notes, weaved some of her tales that left the 75 people in the audience laughing and applauding at times.
She worked on B-25 bombers during World War II, became the first woman in the department to earn equal pay as men, married a man she dated for two weeks, later moved to Cincinnati, buried her first husband, married another man, buried him, visited 56 countries and islands and doesn’t appear ready to rest yet.
“She’s a free spirited woman for sure,” said her only son, Don Kemen, 77, of Fairfield.
Last year, after hearing about B-25 rides being offered at Lunken Field, Kemen called his mother to see if she was interested. But due to inclement weather, the flights were cancelled. But Engel, who lives in a Fairfield nursing facility, got an even better offer.
She met a gentleman who invited her on an Honor Flight with other veterans to Washington, D.C.
While there, the veterans visited numerous memorials, including the WWII Memorials. As the group walked, Engel was handed a bouquet of flowers to place on a marker.
“One of the highlights of my life,” she said. “I was so touched. A day in my life I’ll never forget.”
Terri Evick: ‘It felt like I was back home’
The Evick family had the perfect Thanksgiving story to share.
Terri Evick, who spent more than 400 days in the hospital battling serious illnesses, celebrated Thanksgiving surrounded by her family and food for the first time since 2020.
“We will give special thanks with our special lady,” said her husband of 42 years, Bob Evick. “It will be wonderful to celebrate with my wife here. I mean, really here, physically and spiritually.”
On Oct. 8, 2021, Terri, a retired elementary school teacher who was subbing in the Lakota District, became violently sick to her stomach for 15 hours. She was transported to West Chester Hospital because her gall stones had invaded her pancreas. The family had no idea what the future would hold.
Since that day more than 25 months ago, the 63-year-old mother of three has been admitted and discharged from hospitals countless times, hospitalized for 403 days and survived numerous serious surgeries, including open heart.
She spent months in the Intensive Care Unit at University of Cincinnati Hospital, then was transported to UC Health Drake Center for physical rehabilitation.
She returned home in November and spoke to the congregation at Breiel Church, to the same people who have supported the family for two years. The members gave her two standing ovations, she said.
“It felt like I was back home,” she said of her first time at church since May 2023.
Maryanne Ferrell: ‘When God calls you to be a mom, you just do it’
Mother’s Day columns are some of my favorite of the year, and Maryanne Ferrell certainly didn’t disappoint.
Her oldest son, Luke,
24, has been married for one year to Brittany, and her daughter, Elley, turned 21 on Mother’s
Day.
Even though Elley is an adult, she needs constant care from her parents — Lamar Ferrell, pastor of Berachah Church in Middletown, and Maryanne — more than most people her age.
She was born with spina bifida, a birth defect in which an area of the spinal column doesn’t form properly, leaving a section of the spinal cord and spinal nerves exposed, and hydrocephalus, a neurological disorder, two days before Mother’s Day 2002.
Three months earlier, on Valentine’s Day, Maryanne’s ultrasound detected a possible birth defect. When her doctor diagnosed spina bifida, she remembered the years she volunteered for the March of Dimes in Kentucky where that disorder was “at the top of the list for birth defects.”
The medical professionals “pitched” abortion as a possible option because of the severity of the birth defects. That never was an option for Lamar and Maryanne Ferrell.
Elley enrolled in programs at Abilities First when she was 3 months old, started putting words together in kindergarten and graduated from Middletown High School in 2021.
About that time during the interview, the overhead lights in the church lobby turned off. Elley guided her wheelchair to the middle of the room trying to activate the motion detectors. The lights came back on.
That brought a smile to Maryanne Ferrell’s face.
“When God calls you to be a mom, you just do it,” she said. “You want to fulfill that role to the best of your ability He’s given you. It’s just a great, great opportunity and I’m humbled.”