lit a candle 3h agoMy mom called me in Lisbon this morning just to tell me Wink Brown died. She lives two roads over from Arrington and said he was the one who got that fire department standing back in '87. Never met the man, but growing up you just knew that name if you were from that part of Williamson County.
Their story
William "Wink" Brown was a Tennessee firefighter, fire instructor and apparatus salesman whose career in the fire service stretched more than five decades, from rescue-squad volunteer work in Williamson County to statewide leadership and a long second career with Pierce Fire Trucks. Colleagues remembered him as someone who built stations,…
William "Wink" Brown was a Tennessee firefighter, fire instructor and apparatus salesman whose career in the fire service stretched more than five decades, from rescue-squad volunteer work in Williamson County to statewide leadership and a long second career with Pierce Fire Trucks. Colleagues remembered him as someone who built stations, departments and friendships with equal care, and who treated the delivery of a fire truck as the start of a working relationship rather than the end of a sale.
Born on 24 March 1958, Brown began with the Williamson County Rescue Squad in 1974. He served as its chief from 1983 to 1986 and helped establish fire stations in Leiper's Fork and Fairview. In 1987 he became the founding chief of the Arrington Fire Department, a post he held until 1998. Those years planted permanent infrastructure for fire protection in communities that were then still rural edges of a growing county.
His influence widened through statewide organisations. He served as a commissioner on the Tennessee Commission on Firefighting Personnel Standards and Education, and held leadership posts including president of the Tennessee Association of Fire Instructors, president of the Williamson County Fire Chiefs Association, and treasurer of the Tennessee Fire Chiefs Association. In later life he gave more than 28 years to the Smithville Fire Department, keeping that department trained and equipped for DeKalb County residents.
In industry he built a national reputation selling Pierce fire apparatus, known for staying with departments through specification, delivery and training. He was preceded in death by his parents, Samuel Brown Jr and Helen Brown, and by his brother Michael. He is survived by his wife of 33 years, Kiki Brown, and by a wide circle of in-laws, nieces, a nephew and fire-service friends.
Brown died suddenly on 17 September 2026 at his home in Smithville, Tennessee, aged 68. Williamson County Fire/Rescue and the Smithville Fire Department publicly mourned him, and the funeral home asked friends to remember the meals, rides and quiet help that had already surrounded Wink and Kiki in hard weeks. Funeral services were set for 22 September 2026 at DeKalb Funeral Chapel in Smithville, with burial and firefighter honors at Williamson Memorial Gardens in Franklin, closing a career that had begun on a county rescue squad and ended as a statewide fire-service elder.
Biography adapted from Williamson Source (Morgan Mitchell, 21 Sep 2026), DeKalb Funeral Chapel obituary for William "Wink" Brown.
Photos
1William "Wink" Brown
by People Forever
Arrington still runs on what he built. Good man.