Jane E. Brooks
July 18, 1921 ~ March 6, 2019
Age 97
On July 18, 1921, Jane Elizabeth Brooks (nee Christensen) was born on a farm near Union, Nebraska. She graduated from Peru State Teachers College where she met her husband. She went on to teach in one-room schoolhouses in Nebraska and the King Ranch in Texas, and moved around the country during WWII supporting her husband, a Marine fighter pilot. In partnership with her husband, she built a business and raised a family in Bellevue, NE.
She loved literature, music, and history, and was a teacher to all children and grandchildren in her family. Once, she patted her copy of Sonia Sotomayor’s biography and said to a grandchild, “THIS is history”. She grew up during the Dustbowl and Depression and came of age during WWII, and she understood the struggles of people to care for their families. She was an avid Nebraska football fan. When someone said something negative about a player, she would turn and say, “That’s someone’s little boy”.
She was preceded in death by husband William V. Brooks, son Michael J. Brooks, DDS, granddaughters Beth Hiner Triggs, Aidan Elizabeth O’Neil, and great-grandson Samuel William Triggs. She is survived by three daughters Marsha Brooks Congdon (Bruce D. Belgum), Ann K. Brooks (Howard S. Ames), Sara Brooks O’Neil (Robert H. O’Neil), daughter-in-law Susan Potter Brooks, seven grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren.
Thank you to the kind people at Home Instead, Heritage at Sterling Ridge, Serene Care Hospice, and her kind neighbors in Bellevue.
A memorial service will be held at a later date. Memorials may be to Bellevue University.
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