Former Miss Tennessee gets her hair cut in front of her students after cancer diagnosis

Thirty years ago, Marty Browning was a Chattanooga celebrity.

There's a clip file in the newspaper's archives filled with articles about Browning, who overcame an 87-percent hearing loss at birth to become a baton twirling champion and pageant winner.

Browning, who went on to become a majorette for the Pride of the Southland Band at the University of Tennessee after graduating from East Ridge High School, performed before 85,000 fans at Neyland Stadium in the late 1970s. She used the thump of the bass drum to stay in step.

She was chosen Miss Tennessee in 1985 and represented the Volunteer State that year in the Miss U.S.A. pageant, where she was voted Miss Amity for her sunny personality.

Mark Kennedy

Yellowed newspaper clippings describe her beauty as a young woman, often focusing on her shimmering blonde hair as one of her best features.

Friends will tell you that the truth about Marty -- now Marty Browning-Dunagan and a Chattanooga grandmother -- is that her physical beauty has always been a reflection of an angelic, inner glow. Now in her 50s and a preschool teacher focused on children with communications handicaps, she is an inspiration to anyone lucky enough to be one of her students or friends, people say.

In her little classroom inside Brainerd United Methodist Church one day last week, Marty prepared to have her golden locks cut short for the first time in her adult life. A few weeks earlier, she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had already begun her chemotherapy. Worried that her inevitable hair loss might startle the students at Marty's Hearing Impairment and Speech and Language Center, the mother of four (ages 12 to 27) arranged for a cosmetologist to cut her hair in front of her students.

"I didn't just want to show up one day and be bald-headed," she said. "I just decided to make a lesson plan out of a haircut. That way, they won't be shocked when my hair falls out."

Fifteen children, some wearing hearing aids, sat in a semi-circle and counted dramatically to five, anticipating the moment when a stylist would shear off a seven-inch length of their teacher's hair.

One-two-three-four ...

"Take a breath!" someone said.

FIVE!

With that, the stylist, Kelly Billingslea, pumped her scissors and the ponytail fell away. It will be donated to "Locks of Love," the charity that provides wigs for cancer patients.

"How do I look?" Marty cooed to her students, who were rapt by the whole experience. "I feel five pounds lighter."

"Don't any of you try this at home," the teacher cautioned.

Her 32-year assistant, Tena Chandler, appeared at Marty's side and silently mouthed the words, "You look beautiful."

They hugged.

Later, in an interview, Marty explained that her breast cancer prognosis is good and that the chemotherapy is to provide an extra layer of protection before radiation and a lumpectomy to follow.

Kelly Billingslea holds up Marty Browning-Dunagan's ponytail Friday in a Marty's Center classroom. Browning-Dunagan is undergoing chemotherapy and wanted to cut her long hair before she begins to lose it.

Pam Slaten has been friends with Marty since their high school days together at East Ridge -- Marty played match-maker between Pam and her husband. Pam came to watch the haircut, which, in her mind, confirms Marty's natural gifts as a teacher.

"She has such a positive attitude," Slaten said. "Her biggest concern is always these children.

"After she found out that she has cancer, the only things she's asked for are prayers and silly hats," Slaten added.

Something tells us she will get plenty of both.

Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645. Follow him on Twitter @TFPCOLUMNIST. Subscribe to his Facebook updates at www.facebook.com/mkennedycolumnist.