On Thursday afternoon, the Nanda Wilbourn Family Pavilion at Mayes Park, adjacent from East Elementary where she was longtime principal, was dedicated during a ceremony open to the community.
Shortly after retiring from a career in education, Wilbourn passed away July 24, 2019 from cancer at the age of 64.
Among those who spoke at the ceremony were Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes, Faye Jarvis, Allison Northcutt, Kim Bruton, and Joey Wilbourn.
“This is a special day where we get to recognize a special lady in our community – someone who loved Brownwood, someone who loved children, someone who supported families,” Haynes said. “When we started the effort to upgrade our parks the intention was pretty clear, we wanted a place where families could come and gather and enjoy the day. And I know that Nanda is looking down on us and smiling when she sees this because nothing would have warmed her heart more than to see families enjoying this place.”
Jarvis, the mother of Nanda Wilbourn, spent her career in education as well and in 2007 was a Howard Payne University Yellow Rose Award winner.
“We are so pleased this pavilion is located adjacent to East Elementary where she invested so many years of her life,” Jarvis said. “When she was with the children at East she encouraged them to work hard, to make good choices, to be kind and to Nanda, being kind just meant something very simple, it meant treating other people the way you wanted to be treated. Those weren’t just words for Nanda Wilbourn, that’s what she lived. That’s what she modeled to the children. So when you pass by I would encourage you to remember her, to remember who she was and remember what she meant to each of you.”
Northcutt, the Northwest Elementary principal, shared some memories of her friendship with Nanda, and also spoke of Nanda’s passion for helping others.
“I’m so grateful for the city doing this because I can’t think of a better way to honor my friend than to have this directly across from the school that she loved and the place where she had so much happiness,” Northcutt said. “She was a true humanitarian, always looking for ways to help people, to bring them together through church, through school. She wanted to nurture people, that’s what she did. I know she’s looking down at this park thinking this place is going to be fun for kids, and that’s what she would have loved.”
Bruton, owner of the recently opened Intermission Bookshop, grew up in Irving as did Nanda, which created a bond between the two. Their families also attended in same church in Brownwood.
“She certainly had a light about her,” Bruton said. “She had the ability to peer right into your heart and see, not only with the children here but all of us as children of God, where we’ve been wounded, where we’ve been scarred over and how God was going to use that. She loved her students, and I feel like I got to be a student of hers because I got to see how she loved people, how she always looked for the good in things. Even at the end, she praised and recognized how God had been so faithful to her and how He was being so faithful still.”
Joey Wilbourn, Nanda’s husband, addressed the gathering before closing the ceremony with a prayer.
“Our family is so grateful that she’s being honored in this way,” Wilbourn said. “Our behalf of (sons) Caleb and Josh, I just want to express our sincere appreciation. Nanda was amazing. She affected people in ways that few people know how to do. She had a capacity for affecting people. She was passionate, she was full of grace, she was dedicated, and she always made us laugh. She changed the atmosphere of a room when she entered it. She loved what she did and she certainly had the work ethic to match her passion for it. What you saw in public was also true in private, she was authentic to the core. She was a gift to all of us.”
Johnathan Dunlap, who works at ASAP Creative Arts, designed artwork with Wilbourn’s name that is attached to the front and rear of the pavilion.
