CNN’s Pamela Brown, a Kentucky native, covers tragedy at Texas camp she attended as child
Reporting from a Texas camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died in recent flooding has brought back memories for Kentucky native and CNN anchor Pamela Brown.
Brown, who grew up in Lexington, said in recent reports that she attended Camp Mystic as a child.
Brown is the daughter of the late Gov. John Y. Brown and Phyllis George, a former Miss America and sportscaster.
“I attended that camp 30 years ago when I was 10 years old, about the same age as the little girls we’re sadly talking about,” Brown said in one report from the scene, in which she shared an old photo of herself in a group of girls at the camp.
Brown said she stayed in the Bubble Inn cabin during her time there as a child.
“It is a very different scene now. Trees overlooking cabins along the Guadalupe River, they have been ripped from their roots. Those cabins are now covered with dirt and debris from rising flood waters,” she said.
“But my happy memories of a summer long ago remain, and I will hold on tight to those. I just never thought I would come back 30 years later after being at Bubble Inn to cover a story, a tragedy like this.”
Covering the devastation has clearly been a moving experience for Brown.
“I was there as a 10-year-old, and just being back there and seeing the camp so devastated, and thinking about those young girls, 8 years old, 9 years old, washed away in the waters, it’s just too much for for my heart,” Brown said in another video clip.
“You know, you’re so full of hope and joy and innocence at a place like Camp Mystic. It’s a magical place, and you spend so much of your time out in nature. You spend so much of your time in that Guadalupe River, where we had so many wonderful memories, and that same river is the source of so much devastation for these campers.”
She said the Guadalupe River “was a source of so much joy and fun” during her childhood days as a camper there.
“We would use the blob where someone would jump on it, and then the person at the end would fly into the water. Go looking for dinosaur fossils. We loved it here, and to think that this same river was the source of so much heartache and terror and devastation, I just can’t wrap my head around it.
“I can’t stop thinking about those little girls who were in their decorated bunk beds and their trunks, waking up to horror. The family members coming out here to look for their loved ones. It’s just too much to bear.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
