By Marjory J. Sente
Born in Pine in 1907, Mary Isabelle Fuller Brown recalled that Arizona was only a Territory. “I was old enough to remember when Arizona was taken in as a state. I remember it was a great day for rejoicing when we got the word,” 

Isabelle, the third of four sisters followed by five brothers, could ride, rope and shoot as well as any cowboy. She initially rode bareback. Then her father fixed up a pack saddle with rope stirrups and a sheepskin thrown over the saddle, making her ride soft. “I must have been almost out of grade school before I ever sat on a saddle,” she said. 

Her family spent winters in Pine and summers at their ranch in Long Valley. When Isabelle was 12, she decided to learn to play the organ. So that summer she rode to Pine to take lessons. 
“I went by myself, 20 miles each way. Rode down one day, took my lesson, spent the night with one of my aunts, and rode back the next day,” adding that she never became a good organist, but enjoyed the ride.