About Phyllis...

Phyllis Waters Brown, an Indiantown native, is a Registered Nurse and community activist, whose values were shaped through the examples and expectations set by her grandparents and parents.

 

First settling in Indiantown in 1941, her grandparents came from Georgia as seasonal workers. They briefly moved their family of 15 to public housing in a small farming community in western Palm Beach County before returning in 1947 to Indiantown’s Booker Park community, where they raised their children in the church, instilling their work ethic, showing a compassion for others, and prioritizing an education.

 

Phyllis's first educators were her own parents, Leroy and E. Thelma Waters, married for nearly 60 years, who exemplified her grandparents’ values of hard work, community caregiving, activism, and social justice regardless of race, religion, color, or nationality.

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The eldest of seven children growing up in Indiantown, she lived daily the values imparted by her parents and grandparents. She attended Booker Park Elementary School before transferring to Warfield Elementary at her parents’ insistence, as one of the first three Black students to integrate Warfield. She went on to attend Indiantown Middle School and graduate from Martin County High School, leaving Indiantown to pursue an education and start her nursing career.

 

With an active-duty military spouse at the time, she raised her three children and a cherished granddaughter in different locales, experiencing different perspectives, and growing even more appreciative of her own upbringing. At the same time, her roots and family were the anchors that kept bringing her back home to Indiantown.

 

Now home to stay, she began organizing community-wide cleanups that evolved into iTown, MyTown, a recognized nonprofit that goes beyond roadside trash pick-ups to tend to the yards and homes of the elderly and infirm before code enforcement officials come calling. Working in cooperation with the Village’s Parks and Recreation Department, the organization also sponsors free monthly music concerts on the last Sunday afternoon of the month to help build Indiantown’s sense of community.

 

She’s also active with the Martin County Black Heritage Initiative, founded in 2020 by Lloyd Jones and Anthony Anderson, to restore Black cemeteries and record the oral histories of Black residents — the historical guideposts for the next generation.

 

An employee of Martin County’s Council on Aging as Director of Day Health Services, she helped establish Indiantown’s own “Kane Center” at Big Mound Park to enrich the lives of those aged 55-plus with specialized activities, socialization, and nutritious meals to help care for her community. She also continues to provide free CPR classes to church congregations simply for the asking.

 

The values that shaped her upbringing continue to spur her to tackle new challenges, including giving a voice to the voiceless in the community and ensuring that the promises made to citizens during incorporation are kept, which she says is best accomplished by holding a seat on the Indiantown Village Council.
 

In her “spare” time, she and her husband, Howard L. Brown, who brought three “bonus” children and nine grandchildren to their marriage, enjoy their family and friends, making new memories, traveling to new places -- and always coming home to Indiantown.