It can be difficult to watch a place you love change over time. Rather than resist those changes, 99-year-old Deane Brown Bishop, who was born and raised in Dublin, has simply adapted.
According to the Dublin Historical Society, Bishop’s paternal ancestor, Basil Brown, came to Dublin with his wife, Nancy, and their three children in 1826 from Baltimore, Maryland. He was a shoemaker by trade. This would be the start of the family’s long history in Dublin.
Bishop was born to parents Basil and Susie Brown. She grew up on a farm where the AC Hotel by Marriott now stands in Bridge Park, where the family mostly raised corn. Bishop spent more of her childhood in her dad’s garage working on cars, however, rather than farming. She was the youngest of four children. She spent plenty of time playing with her brother, Joseph, who was closest to her in age. Bishop’s two sisters, Ruth and Mary Emma Bailey – for whom Bailey Elementary School is named – were much older than her. Growing up during the Great Depression, Bishop doesn’t remember having the leisure time that children in Dublin enjoy today, so she spent most of her time working on cars with her dad.
“There wasn’t too much to do, but I would change oil and do one thing or another,” she says.
Bishop was a self-proclaimed daddy’s girl, and did many things that are considered out of the ordinary for young girls even still today. She began driving at age 6, drove the firetruck when needed and went on to become a bus driver for Dublin City Schools for 28 years – a job she loved. In fact, she was former Storyteller Barb Headlee’s bus driver. Despite growing up in Dublin when only a few hundred people lived in the village, Bishop’s mom didn’t like her going into what is now Historic Dublin to play.
“Mom would never let me go to Dublin, other than sending me to the store,” she says. “She didn’t like the reputation of the kids that were my age.”
In such a small community, everyone knew each other. She recalls going into Columbus with a few friends, and getting pulled over.
“He asked us what our names were and we said Brown, Thomas, Jones and Smith, and he said, ‘You’re lying,’” says Bishop, laughing. The officer didn’t believe the last names, which were considered common even then.
She remembers being one of the few lucky children who could get a “hello” from Ethel Artz. Artz was known by Dublin residents of the time to be one-of-a-kind, and she was selective in the children she associated with.
“I was the only one who could go over in Ethel’s field and get a ball. She was a character,” says Bishop. “I was the only one who could get in her house, too.”
Bishop’s father was in the Dublin schools class of 1899 – just the fourth class of students to graduate from the schools, though they were still Washington Township schools. Bishop estimates there were about 250 students in the entire district when she graduated. Bishop’s grandson, Tyler, was tasked with detailing his family history for class, and his teacher accused him of lying when he reported that five generations of his family had graduated from Dublin schools.
“Grandma went into school,” says Bishop. “I straightened her out.”
The family’s experience in the schools isn’t just from the student perspective, however. In addition to Bishop’s experience as a bus driver, her father was a janitor; daughter, Suzie Feasel, worked in the central office for 38 years; son-in-law, Ralph Feasel, worked in various positions for more than 50 years, including 10 years as principal of Dublin High School; and Ralph’s son, Wade Feasel, is a teacher at Dublin Jerome High School today. Without the close partnership with Bishop, Jerome may not exist as it does today, as the land on which Jerome sits was previously owned by the Bishop family.
Feasel says her mother was a strong-willed woman – and still is. However, Bishop says she had to be, as her first husband, Howard Bishop, passed away when Feasel was just 12 years old. Bishop married again in the mid ’70s to Howard’s brother, Leland Bishop, who passed in 1993. Feasel says when she was growing up, her mother always seemed to know what she was doing – oftentimes, it seemed, before Feasel did it.
“I was accused of having eyes in the back of my head,” says Bishop.
Including her work as a school bus and firetruck driver, Bishop also worked briefly as a clerk with the zoning board. She is also involved with the Dublin Community Church as her parents and grandparents were. She enjoys reading.
Despite seeing nearly a century of change in Dublin, Bishop says she believes the local government has done a good job of maintaining the city’s natural splendor.
“When somebody moves here, they stay,” says Bishop. “It is a beautiful city.”
Amanda DePerro is an editor. Feedback welcome at adeperro@cityscenemediagroup.com.