THE BALLOON MAN

100-year-old Jacksonville man says do what you love, and adventure will follow

Wesley "Brownie" Brown's loves: Flying planes and being a part of the circus.

DON BURK/The Times-Union

Wesley Brown, 100, holds up his five flight logs, and his first pilot’s license, leaning on a circus wheel that he made. He had careers as a pilot and in the circus industry.

May 4, 2011

from: http://www.jacksonville.com/

By Matt Soergel

Wesley Brown, known throughout his life as "Brownie," was born 100 years ago, during the time of President Taft. Like anyone who's made it this far, he's asked to share his secret for a long life.
He hardly pauses. "Never drink alone. Never sleep alone. Never stay up any later than you can get somebody to stay up with you."
He might also add this: Do what you love for a living.
For Brown, that came down to two things: Flying airplanes and joining the circus.

Provided by Wesley Brown
Brown made wheels for circus wagons.
In 1927, he was 17, too young for the Army Air Corps. No problem: He lied about his age. He was too skinny, too. So the recruiter gave him 50 cents and told him to buy as many bananas as he could. Brown stuffed the bananas in him, one after the other, then was weighed again. Heavy enough this time.
In 1956, he was 46, too old, many would say, to take up the circus life. But he traveled from Jacksonville up to Wisconsin, to the Circus World Museum, and did just that. By his mid-60s, he was manager of the Great American Circus.
Both occupations are rooted in his boyhood years, before he was yet 10. That's when his family, dirt-floor poor, lived near the fairgrounds in Columbia, S.C

Provided by Wesley Brown
Wesley Brown and Dorothy, the lady he married, shared a love of flying. They married in 1939 after he gave her a ride in a plane.
Ringling Brothers would come there, and Barnum & Bailey, too. His father, a streetcar driver, knew a guy from Barnum & Bailey, and they would sit on the front porch, chew tobacco and tell stories. Young Wesley listened in, and he poked around the circuses, too, fascinated by the animals and the glamorous performers.
"That's when I got stuck," he says.
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-05-04/story/100-year-old-jacksonville-man-says-do-what-you-love-and-adventure-will#ixzz1LNQ9E2KP

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BROWNIE!