During the Great Depression, Brown moved to Chicago and experienced some health problems, but she had difficulty obtaining the care she needed. At one visit to a Chicago area hospital, she was turned away and denied care. Brown reportedly said to the staff, "I am black and poor, but I will leave in peace so that I can keep my dignity." Years later, at the height of the civil rights era, Brown was
raising her four children in Seattle when she became a community organizer. She fought to bring quality healthcare with dignity to children in the Central District through a federally funded effort to solve inner-city problems by building "model neighborhoods.” Brown died of leukemia in 1969 at age 49. When the new children's clinic opened the next year, a thankful community named the clinic in her honor. From that early beginning in 1970, when just one doctor delivered on Brown’s dream, Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic has grown into a comprehensive facility with medical, dental, mental health and nutrition services that embrace patients and families in our community. Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic is building a second location. To help us meet the growing needs of the community, we are building a second OBCC location – a bigger, new clinic near the Othello Link light rail station in Southeast Seattle’s Rainier Valley.
