"And Aubree Was Her Name"

The deadline was drawing near and we were feeling the pressure. Our third child was due within weeks and we had not come up with a name, should our newborn be our third girl. We had already cranked out the names of our first two daughters... Maelynne Jean was a combination of the middle names of my mom (Mae) my sister (Lynne) and my mother-in-law (Jean). Tara Beth, our second daughter, was named after the plantation in the movie “Gone with the Wind” with her middle name just sounding like it fit with her first. Tara Beth Munson... it just had a nice rhythm to it.

Complicating our task was that we didn’t want to use a super common name. We wanted the names of our children to be somewhat unique but not weird. I mean we weren’t going to name her Mountain or Sunshine... but we also weren’t going to name her Heather or Michelle (not that those are bad names... just very common).

So, I was at work one day. Our office had that subtle, soft music that was pumped in throughout the building. Elevator music. It was the kind of music that you learned to ignore as you went about your daily tasks. On this particular day, I was preoccupied with trying to think of a name and being frustrated with the process when I heard this phrase coming from the speaker above me... “and Aubrey was her name,” and in that moment I decided that “Aubrey” WAS her name... or was soon to be her name, albeit with a slightly different spelling... A-u-b-r-e-e.

So, a hat-tip to David Gates and Bread, the easy listening rock band who helped me with the naming of daughter #3.

Aubree was born on May 15th, 1986 at Downey Community Hospital, the same hospital where her big sisters were born.

I don’t remember much about Aubree’s first couple years of life. I guess that it was an unspectacular time. No miracles, no crises… just the routine events of life.

Around the age of three, we dragged Aubree to the ballpark frequently as we watched her older sisters play softball. Living in Southern California, we enjoyed favorable weather for 12 months a year and there were softball leagues offered almost constantly. It was during these days when softball started to become a pillar in the recreational lives of the Munson’s.

Wanting to mimic her sisters, Aubree would grab their softball equipment every chance she could and would fancy herself as the latest Munson softball player. The glove would dwarf her tiny hand and the bat seemed as long as she was tall.

Unlike her right handed sisters, Aubree was a southpaw. Threw left, batted left.

From my perspective, seeing her early interest in softball warmed my heart and I did everything I could to feed her interest. So, as her sisters were warming up for their game, Aubree and I would be on the sidelines, playing catch or I would be tossing her balls to hit.

One thing that became very clear from a very young age is that Aubree could hit the ball. Her swing was powerful and fluid. I would often get comments from other dads about beauty of Aub’s swing.

I will never forget the first time she had a chance to play in a real softball game. Maelynne and Tara played on a team called the Bears. Aubree was only 3 years old at the time… too young to be on the team. In the final inning of the last game of the season, the coach asked Aubree if she wanted to bat. Aub looked at me for direction and I nodded, “Go ahead, kid.”

She grabbed a helmet and put it on her head… backwards. The coach chuckled as she

removed the helmet and placed it on her head correctly. Aubree timidly walked up toward the plate and took her left handed stance… in the right handed batter’s box. A ripple of laughter spread through the crowd of parents as the coach, once again, grabbed her by the shoulders and gently backed her up a few steps, into the correct batter’s box.

In this league of six and seven year olds, the coach would pitch to the batters and if they failed to hit the ball after five pitches, which would happen with frequency, they would place a tee on the plate and let the player hit the ball, sitting stationary on the tee.

Three-year-old Aubree, looking aggressive in her stance, smacked the first pitch and stood there, seemingly not knowing what to do next. The players and the crowd of parents yelled, “Run!” Aub dropped the bat and took off in a dead sprint… to third base. The crowd erupted in laughter as my confused daughter stood on third base, clueless as to why everyone was laughing.

Aubree grew up… not in the shadow of her sisters but attempting to emulate them. And she couldn’t have had better role models than Maelynne and Tara.

We moved from Southern California to Grinnell, Iowa in 1993 when Aubree was seven. She struggled for a bit, being the new girl. She would become anxious each morning before school and would beg to stay home, “just for today!”

If you are a parent, you have likely endured a stretch or two in your child’s life where they struggle with an issue that is very important and challenging for them. We had this with Aub for a few weeks after our move to Grinnell and it was heart wrenching but once she adapted to her new environment, she made friends with relative ease.

As a child, Aubree had a quirkiness to her personality. It’s hard to describe in writing but she would crack us up with her physical reaction to somewhat mundane situations, many of which we caught on video… such as one Christmas morning, as the girls were opening presents, Aub was back in the corner of the video shot, sitting on her new sled, bouncing around as if she were flying down a snow slickened hill. I know, I know… it doesn’t sound that humorous in

writing and so I guess you had to be there. Suffice it to say that we loved her unrehearsed, goofy little personality.

Grinnell had a wonderful, newly built baseball/softball complex and our family spent many, many hours there, watching the girls play. Aubree decided she wanted to pitch… just like her sisters and we began working on that craft, to teach her the fundamentals. Like every other part of her game, Aubree caught on very quickly. By the time she reached the 5th grade, she was the most dominant pitcher in the league. I recall one game where Aubree’s team won by the mercy rule in 4 innings and all 12 outs were victims of strike outs. Aub was absolutely unhittable.

If Aubree had a flaw, it was her expectation of excellence in every endeavor she engaged in. I guess it wasn’t so much the “expectation” that was bad, but her response when she experienced a failure. She was so hard on herself and that fact was never as evident as it was during her high school softball career. She expected perfection… an obvious impossibility… and she would beat herself up when she didn’t meet that threshold. One need not be a body language expert to know when Aubree was having a tough time with her performance and we had many a post-game discussion about this issue.

It is difficult to stray away from the subject of sports when chronicling Aubree’s school years because athletics dominated so much of her time. Sports were intricately tied to her personal persona. She was a fantastic and accomplished high school athlete. Aub graduated with an amazing 14 varsity letters. She was a standout in volleyball, basketball, track, soccer and softball. And she performed minus any hint of cockiness or arrogance.

Softball was her premier sport where she was the recipient of several all-conference honors as well as a spot on two all-state teams… one 3rd team all-state and one 2nd team all-state. As a result, she drew the interest of several NAIA colleges with direct offers from 3 schools. Ultimately, she chose Cedarville University in Ohio, where big sister Tara was entering her senior year, where she was the captain of the softball team.

Aubree had a wonderful softball career at Cedarville where she started a number of games her freshman year before becoming an every day starter in her sophomore through senior seasons. As with her sister Tara, Aub was selected as captain in her final softball campaign.

Aub won multiple all-conference honors and was also named to the National Christian College Athletic Association All American Second Team. I haven’t checked in recent years but last I knew, Aubree was still in the top 10 in 7 career offensive categories for Cedarville University. She was also named as an Athlete of Honor, a prestigious title at Cedarville after graduating in 2008.

Aub as Cover Girl

One may be thinking at this point, “That’s a lot of bragging about  yourkid right there!” To which I’d respond, “I know! But it’s all true and I am so proud of my daughter!” I hope you understand that I just wanted to honor my daughter in this way. Sorry, not sorry.


On a sweet note, at Aubree’s wedding reception, we had the father/bride dance. Can you guess what song we danced to? That’s right, “Aubrey” by David Gates and Bread. An obvious choice.

Today, Aubree is the mother of 3 wonderful children… Graham, Tenley and Teagan. And you guessed it, she coaches her daughters in softball and they couldn’t ask for a better coach… and I couldn’t ask for a better daughter.

And Aubree was her name…