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Memorial service for Gwendolyn DeVere Brooks, age 87, of Chickasha will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 11, 2007, at the USAO Chapel.
Gwendolyn was born on April 14, 1920, in Enid, Oklahoma. She graduated from Enid High School in 1938, then entered Oklahoma A&M in Stillwater, Oklahoma where she pledged with the Alpha Delta Pi sorority. Gwendolyn graduated with a bachelors degree in 1943.
She started dating Curtis A. Brooks of Pauls Valley, Ok in 1941, and they married on April 2, 1942, in Enid. After graduation from college, her first son, Mike, was born in 1943. She and her family followed the Army until Curtis went overseas, and she taught school at the brand new "state of the art" school in Midwest City. When Curtis returned form Germany in 1946, they moved to Norman. While in Norman, three more children were born, Pat, Joyce, and Nancy.
In 1956, she and her family moved to Chickasha. She became involved organizing a local group of women into the League of Women Voters. Out of that, she was instrumental with getting child care centers started in Chickasha. The childcare center began at the old South Elementary School, then moved to the student union at the local college. She was especially happy when the Washita Canadian Valley Vocational and Technical School became the permanent super childcare center. Gwendolyn was instrumental in starting the Washita Valley Headstart Program.
Gwendolyn spent many hours with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, band parents, and Sunday School teaching. She was also actively involved in many community organizations such as P.E.O. Chapter DV, Sorosis, McDowell Music Club, Chickasha Area Arts Council, and the Red Hats Social Club. She was also a member of the First Church of Christ Scientist.
Gwendolyn was preceded in death by her parents, Vernon and Halsey Benson; one sister, Bonnie Jean Humphries; son and daughter-in-law, Mike and Deana [King] Brooks; and her husbands parent's, Luther and Annie Brooks.
She is survived by her loving and wonderful husband of 65 years, Curtis A. Brooks of the home; son and daughter-in-law, Pat and Paula [Hallman] Brooks of Chickasha; daughter, Nancy Smith of Chickasha; daughter and son-in-law, Joyce and Bruce Murray of Gig Harbor, Washington; granddaughter and husband, Stephanie Connell and Daren of West Lake, Texas; granddaughter, Stacey Young of Oklahoma City; granddaughter and husband, Shelley Moore and Pete of Dallas, Texas; granddaughter, Melinda Smith of Norman; granddaughter and husband, Melissa Schultz and Alan of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; grandson, Ross Murray of Bend, Oregon; and six great- grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to the USAO Scholarship Foundation, 1727 W. Alabama, Chickasha, OK, 73018, Chickasha Public School Foundation, P. O. Box 2443, Chickasha, OK, 73023 and the Chickasha Area Arts Council, P. O. Box 505, Chickasha, OK, 73023.
Services are under the direction of the McRay Funeral Home.
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