Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 18, 1990                   TAG: 9004180228
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: OAKLAND, CALIF.                                LENGTH: Short

QUAKE ORPHAN TO BE RAISED BY COUSINS

In announcing the custody for Jimmy Brown, Judge Roderic Duncan of Alameda County Superior Court rejected the claims of two grandparents. Each had charged that the other was unfit to raise the child and collect compensation that could reach a quarter of a million dollars.

Just hours before the hearing Tuesday, the grandparents accepted the judge's custody decision. They also set up a visitation schedule.

The baby has been with the second cousins, Arthur and Tonia Lewis, since the end of March, when Duncan awarded them temporary custody.

Jimmy was born to unmarried, unemployed teen-agers in a family in which generations of women have had children out of wedlock and generations of men have served time in jail.

The case was closely watched because of the poignancy of Jimmy's circumstances and the judge's insistence on reversing the course of the child's life.