Betty Brooks was a mixture of warmth and fearlessness, of compassion and bawdy humor – an outspoken woman with boundless zest for life, her family says.
“If she had something she wanted to say, even if it burned your behind, she would say it and you just had to get over it,” her daughter, Nancy Brooks said. “She had all kinds of funny phrases and sayings – we called them ‘Bettyisms.’
“But, she will be remembered for her unconditional love and her ability to cherish people for themselves. She’d support you any way she could.”
Mrs. Brooks died July 12 at age 82 after a heart attack.
She grew up in Elvins, the daughter of a lead miner dad and a homemaker mom.
“She went to school through ninth grade,” Nancy said. “She quit when my grandma had my aunt Ruth, because she was needed around the house – but I think she just didn’t have much interest in school.”
It wasn’t long before she met Knighten “Dale” Brooks through family friends, and it must have been love at first sight.
“His older sister and her husband took them to elope,” Nancy said. “They told my grandparents they were going to get married, and one day in 1954 they just went and did it.”
Already a talented seamstress, taught by her mother, the new bride went to work for the TrimFoot factory in Farmington.
“She was on the team that created the first Mickey Mouse hat made there. I have one,” Nancy said. “She was a pace setter; she was a good piece worker, because she could sew quickly and perfectly.”
A baby girl soon arrived, and Mrs. Brooks returned to full-time homemaker.
“She had to quit work because my sister would not be content staying with Grandma,” Nancy said. “My mom said, ‘We needed the money, but I could not go off every day and leave her bawling.’ She was so soft-hearted when it came to babies.”
Dale, a grocery worker, got a job offer in St. Louis and moved his family to Otto for a brief time.
“In 1959, they bought the house in House Springs where she lived for 60 years. She called it her mansion. It was a good move for them.”
Once second daughter Nancy started school, Mrs. Brooks returned to the work force.
“She worked for Causey’s Furniture Store in High Ridge making custom draperies,” Nancy said.
“There was a wealthy St. Louisan who had a yacht and she made the draperies for it.”
Mrs. Brooks used her sewing talents elsewhere as well.
“There was nothing she couldn’t make,” Nancy said. “One Christmas, she made my sister a whole wardrobe of Barbie clothes. She was a fantastic quilter, too.”
Mrs. Brooks developed other skills as well.
“There was nothing in the house she wouldn’t try or do; whatever it was, she’d give it a whirl,” Nancy said. “She did stucco ceilings for at least three houses I know of. Not for money, just to help them out.
“She also had a huge comic book collection from the 1950s and 60s.”
Mrs. Brooks also loved to cook.
“She could cook for two or 22,” Nancy said. “Chicken and dumplings were her specialty.”
Mrs. Brooks also liked the outdoors.
“She liked to fish, and a few times she went deer hunting with my dad,” Nancy said. “That stopped, though, the year her hair froze to the side of the camper. That was the end of it.”
Nancy said her mother’s parenting style was loving but no-nonsense.
“My mom raised us not by the hand but by The Look,” she said with a laugh. “She could give you that look and you knew you’d better be doing what you were supposed to. There was no sass back.”
When riverboat gambling in Missouri was legalized in 1992, Mrs. Brooks immediately embraced what would be her lifelong recreational activity – playing slot machines.
“She was Jackpot Betty,” Nancy said. “She and my dad started going to Tunica on gambling trips, and one day she won $25,000. They stopped off at Sapaugh on the way home, picked out a car, and came back the next day with a check.”
In her later years, Mrs. Brooks spent a lot of time with her grandchildren, including “bonus” ones.
“My sister’s son, Michael, lived here with my parents and me,” Nancy said. “He brought in so many people who called them Grandma and Grandpa.”
Michael’s unexpected death in 2018 devastated his family.
“He died of a massive heart attack at 27,” Nancy said. “That was very difficult for her; he was her golden baby boy.”
Mrs. Brooks had arthritis, but was generally healthy until the last few years. She had a heart attack a few months after Michael’s death, had a stroke in October 2019 and was forced to go on kidney dialysis early this year.
Nancy said her parents’ 65th anniversary was a bright spot in what became a relentless decline for her mother.
“She just kept having small setbacks,” Nancy said. “The last time, we rushed her to the hospital, and I was with her when she took her last breath.”
Nancy said her mother will be remembered for her joie de vivre and her way of embracing life on her own terms.
“She loved nothing more than to sit at one of her beloved Double Diamond slot machines with a Bloody Mary or a beer in her hand, just having a damn good time.”
“Life Story,” posted Saturdays on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.