A look at Helen Browne Comer

One of the most interesting and, perhaps, kindest persons to have lived in Alex City was Mrs. John Fletcher Comer. Mrs. Comer was born Helen Browne in Washington, D.C. Her father, Aldis B. Browne, was quite a prominent attorney in our nation’s capital. His daughter was educated at Goucher College and later married Mr. Comer, one of the sons of Governor B.B. Comer. The young couple first lived at Comer, Ala., near Eufaula, and later moved to Old Town Plantation near Louisville, Ga. Mr. Comer owned and operated this cotton and corn plantation, and lived there with his young family until the youngest child, Aldis, died at five years of age. Mrs. Comer, who believed that the distance from good medical care was responsible for her child’s death, declared that she would never live at Old Town again.

The Comer family visited his father, Governor Comer, who had recently acquired a mill in Alex City, which was added to the Comer-owned Avondale group of cotton mills. The governor decided that his son, Fletcher, should be sent to manage this acquisition, so Mr. and Mrs. Comer, with their three surviving children, Mary, Bragg and Dora, came to Alex City in 1919.