Juditha Brown, Friend Hook Up to Aid Cause

They’re neighbors. Phone buddies. Best friends. And when they met on a sunny beach in Laguna all those years ago, they never dreamed each would lose a child.

But Judie Manto lost her 18-year-old son, Marc, in 1982 in an automobile accident. And Juditha Brown was there for her.

“She came over in her nightgown to be with me in the middle of the night when I lost my golden boy,” said Manto, who lives in Dana Point.

And when Brown learned last year that her 35-year old daughter, Nicole Brown Simpson, had been killed, Manto flew to her home at 6 a.m. wearing her nightgown.

“We’ve been through the battle together; we’re foxhole mates,” said Manto, a jovial woman Brown calls “her rock.”

Now, the two women are combining forces to chair a benefit for the fledgling Nicole Brown Simpson Charitable Foundation.

On Sunday--at the Corona del Mar restaurant Manto owns with her husband, Carmelo--the friends will oversee festivities that will include an Italian dinner, live auction, continuous musical entertainment and celebrity appearances by Geraldo Rivera, Ed Begley Jr. and Steve and Candace Garvey. The Mantos are underwriting all costs for the $100-per-person event.

Last week--during an interview at Carmelo’s--Brown said she plans to devote her time to the foundation, which provides funds for the education and shelter of abused women.

“People ask what they can do,” she said, “and this is an opportunity to help. They can come to this party, bring a bunch of people, fill the place.”

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Since her daughter’s death, Brown has come to believe that education is the key to the prevention of domestic violence.

“Women must learn to be aware of how they are being treated. They must learn to not keep [abuse] to themselves.”

Nicole was in denial about her abuse, Brown realizes.

“And I wasn’t able to teach her about it. I’m European, had a different upbringing. I learned that you get married and stay married. If there are struggles, you iron them out. You don’t run away.”

Unless, of course, you are being physically or emotionally mistreated.

“I now realize that we need to begin teaching children that hands are not for hitting, that they don’t have to be macho to be big,” Brown said. “The foundation will work to teach children these things. And men and women too.”

Unveiled last December, the foundation quickly took in thousands of dollars in private donations. The Browns’ philanthropic efforts, generally praised for the attention they brought to domestic violence, were beset, however, by a series of difficulties.

The family learned, for example, that the foundation’s first president, Jeff Noebel, was a man who indulged in shaky business ventures and had a record of bankruptcies and lawsuits.

“I guess you’d call us novices,” Lou Brown, Nicole’s father, said in July.

Since then, changes have been made to keep tighter control over the organization. Lou Brown is now the foundation’s president, and Manto has replaced Noebel on the board. In July, the organization made its first grant: $10,000 to Human Options, a domestic-abuse shelter in Orange County.

The foundation is working to recruit more volunteers and raise funds for its public education efforts.

“Tanya and Denise [Brown] are our best speakers,” Brown said. “I haven’t spoken yet. I haven’t had the time to read all of the things about abuse I need to read.

“But I feel it because of what I’ve seen. I feel stronger now, about wanting to talk about violence, than I ever have. And I will. I will go out and talk.”

Brown is hopeful that the benefit Sunday will become an annual event that will help keep the foundation going.

If Nicole left a legacy, her mother said, it was to “live life to the fullest--to love, give love. “She’s probably sitting up there . . . looking down on us, laughing. She loved life. She would have loved this party.”

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To contact the foundation, call or write:

Nicole Brown Simpson Charitable Foundation

P.O. Box 380

Monarch Beach, CA 92629

(714) 499-9919