{"id":18000,"date":"2025-12-11T19:09:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=18000"},"modified":"2025-12-11T19:09:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:09:40","slug":"wilma-brown-surprised-on-her-90th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/11\/wilma-brown-surprised-on-her-90th-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilma Brown Surprised on Her 90th Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Mayors Carty Finkbeiner and Paula Hickes-Hudson and current Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz with Wilma Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Truth Staff<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not always easy to surprise someone on her birthday. However, on Thursday, December 4, former Toledo City Council President Wilma Brown was indeed flabergasted as friends and former colleagues greeted her and shouted out their \u201cSURPRISE!\u201d as the guest of honor entered the meeting room of the Indiana Avenue Missionary Baptist Church.<\/p>\n

Wilma Brown celebrated her 90th<\/sup> birthday last week in an event hosted by Robin Wheatley, Pam Hayes and Maggie Benson.<\/p>\n

Guests heard tributes from former Toledo mayors Carty Finkbeiner and Paula Hicks-Hudson and current Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, along with numerous others whom Brown has worked with and influenced over her many years in public service.<\/p>\n

Plaques from the city and the state were presented as the many aspects of Brown\u2019s life were noted and honored.<\/p>\n

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Brown arrived in Toledo to attend and graduate from Scott High School and pursued higher education at the University of Toledo, Davis Business College and Bowling Green State University.<\/p>\n

She served on the Toledo Board of Education for 12 years and on Toledo City Council for 14 years, becoming the first woman to be voted president of Council. She has also held various business and non-profit roles such as designer at Models, Inc, program director\u00a0 at the American Cancer Society, community health coordinator for the City of Toledo\u2019s Health Department and membership director for the Maumee Valley Girl Scout Council. She is still a member of the Civil Service Commission.<\/p>\n

One of her more significant accomplishments is her leadership of the annual Debutante Cotillion hosted by the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women\u2019s Clubs, Toledo Club. The Cotillion, now in its 58th<\/sup> year, was the brainchild of Brown, who served as the general chairman for decades \u2013 she still serves as the Cotillion treasurer.<\/p>\n

There were so many accolades offered at the Thursday celebration of Brown\u2019s 90th<\/sup> birthday and City Councilman George Sarantou, who served with her for years, summed up her city council presidency. \u201cShe was a terrific president, very fair, always engaged, did her homework and kept us in line \u2013 I\u2019m eternally thankful to you on behalf of the citizens of Toledo for all that you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Truth Staff It\u2019s not always easy to surprise someone on her birthday. However, on Thursday, December 4, former Toledo City Council President Wilma Brown was indeed flabergasted as friends and former colleagues greeted her and shouted out their \u201cSURPRISE!\u201d as the guest of honor entered the meeting room of the Indiana Avenue Missionary Baptist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[324],"class_list":["post-18000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18004,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18000\/revisions\/18004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18000"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=18000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}