Earl Brooks (1900 - 1969)

Born 4 Jul 1900 in Nickerson, Reno County, Kansas, United States

Ancestors

Died 12 Jul 1969 at age 69 in Salem, Marion County, Oregon, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Phillip Pitzer [send private message]

Biography

BIO: The following was written by Earl's sister Evelyn (Happy) Brooks Belford, in July, 1996, and transcribed here by PHP.

EARL BROOKS was the oldest and first born of five children born to Ova Hill and James William Brooks. He had no middle name or initial. His sisters Eleanor, Rachel and Happy (Evelyn) all went to Oregon for his funeral when he died 7-12-1969. One day while there they went to the court house in Grants Pass, Oregon, where they were to meet Earl's wife Ruby. The lady at the court house ask them who they were to meet and they said Mrs. Earl Brooks. The lady said which one? They were surprised to learn another Earl Brooks had died at the same time; however, he had a middle name. Earl died a few weeks after turning 69 years of age. He was born in 1900 on the fourth of July.

Evelyn never knew Earl to live at home due to fact he was 18 years older than her. He was married four times and had no children. He did a number of interesting things during his life. He was a bookkeeper for a hardware store in Pratt, Kansas. He worked at the lumber yard in Pratt. He lived in Pratt a long time. While there, he sang in a quartet called "4 B's" as all their last names started with B. They put on shows. They came to the Nickerson community, Union Five school one time and did their show. Earl dressed like an old man with a cane and sang. One of the wives did chalk drawings and one of the men played the violin while she drew her picture. Earl sold wholesale groceries for a Hutchinson, Kansas food company and lived in Pratt.

He served in World War II. After that he was in California a few years and worked for an artificial limb business, then he moved to Oregon. He had a small ranch (very small) with a road going down the middle, just like home. His home was in the mountains south of Grants Pass. The house was not much, but it was comfortable and he liked it there. To make a living, he worked at the saw mill. He took Evelyn and her husband Ray Belford there and they found out it sure was a noisy business. He was always good with figures. He worked in a small enclosed glass room where he could see the logs and with hand signals would tell the man on the saw how to saw the log. That man sat on a big seat and would saw the length of the log and then in a wink of the eye, he was back at the beginning of the log again to saw another piece. Earl also did some water witching for some of his neighbors. He belonged to the Grange and was active in it. One of his pet projects was the local cemetery. It was on a hillside, lots of trees, a nice location, but in needed some help. That is where he is buried. Like all of us, he made his mistakes, paid his dues and lived a good life.

Sources

See - FAG Memorial for Earl Brooks

Also Soc Sec Num 510-10-8778