McAllen, Valley say final goodbyes to Brand
McALLEN — Mourners filled Calvary Baptist Church in McAllen on Tuesday to say their final goodbyes to former McAllen mayor Othal Brand.
Family and friends spoke about the giant of Rio Grande Valley politics, shedding light on Brand not only as a public official and a businessman, but also as a father, a husband and a man of faith.
"I think he was a great man because behind all of his accolades, he was a man with a heart full of love," said Dr. Ellis Orozco, Brand’s pastor at Calvary Baptist for more than nine years. "He was a great man because he loved his community, his family and his God."
Brand’s son, Othal Jr., opened the service with an emotional speech and later sang two songs with the "Sons of Calvary," a church quartet.
"He was always a visionary with endless energy," Othal Jr. said. "(I was) half his age and he still ran me into the ground."
Brand is survived by his four children, his wife of 64 years, Kay, and 19 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His niece, Barbara Jane Grower, said Brand had a special bond with each one of his four children.
"Othal was involved in the lives of his kids," said Grower, who worked for her uncle at Griffin & Brand, the former mayor’s produce company.
He shared the love of reading with his daughter Lynn, Grower said. Othal Jr. was his hunting buddy, she said, and they enjoyed poetry together. He and his daughter Karyn shared a love of animals.
His daughter Cynthia was his fishing buddy, Grower said, which was convenient because her husband did not like to fish with Brand.
"He knew that if he caught the biggest fish, they’d be there all night until Othal caught one that was bigger," she said.
Orozco said he was always amazed how Brand knew everything going on in each of his grandchildren’s lives, which was further evidence of the former mayor’s incredible capacity to store information, he said.
"I never saw him happier than when he was talking about them," Orozco said.
The pastor said Brand’s character and discipline were forged during the Great Depression. He said Brand’s service to his community and his country began when he enlisted into the U.S. Marine Corps a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
"Othal Brand is the epitome of what Tom Brokaw called America’s Greatest Generation," he said.
It was that same roughneck character that induced many laughs throughout the church during Grower’s eulogy and the pastor’s speech.
"Othal was a strong Christian," Grower said. "In fact, he drove all over Mexico with a Bible in his hand and a pistol in the front seat. He was practical."
Just a block away from City Hall at the Roselawn Cemetery, Brand was given the 21-gun salute as his family watched on from under a blue canopy. Two U.S. Marines folded the American flag that had been draped over his coffin.
"Jim Darling and Mike Perez, you guys don’t have to worry about getting phone calls from him anymore," Othal Jr. said during the service, speaking to a McAllen city commissioner and its current city manager. "He’s up there bothering people now."
