Ida Mae Mayes Brooks (1884-1951) - Find a Grave Memorial

Ida Mae Mayes Brooks

Birth

23 May 1884

Brown County, Texas, USA

Death

19 Mar 1951 (aged 66)

Dustin, Hughes County, Oklahoma, USA

Burial

Fairview Cemetery

Dustin, Hughes County, Oklahoma, USA Add to Map

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Ida Mae Mayes Brooks was born May 23, 1884, in Brown County Texas to Enoch Harvey and Mary Elizabeth Brooks Clay Mayes, the last of her mother's fourteen children. She departed this life at the age of 66 on March 19, 1951, in Dustin, OK. After the death of her father, Ida moved to Indian Territory Oklahoma about 1895 with her mother, brothers and sisters. She married Marion Leroy Brooks and had two sons, Elliot Doyle and Carl, who both died as young boys.

Ida was the "Doctor" of the family. She always knew a remedy for whatever was wrong. She worked with local doctors, Wallace and Parker in Dustin. She helped with child birth and when anyone needed special nursing care, they called on Ida.

She was an exceptionally good and caring person, an upstanding christian, baptized into the Christian Church. Though her husband abandoned her, and didn't contribute to the support of his family, when he became ill and was dying of TB, she helped take care of him and sat up many nights with him until his death in 1914.
Aunt Ida, as she was known to all, earned her living in various ways: as a dressmaker sewing garments from her own designs or from pictures brought to her by clients, selling her fine handwork, such as crocheted bedspreads, doilies and baby sweaters, embroidered items and handmade quilts and canning on the halves for local people. During WWII she worked as supervisor of the Government Sewing Workroom in Dustin. She spent most of her life in Dustin with her brother Chris Mayes, a lifetime bachelor, and her niece Vivian Howard.

When her sister Laura Howard became seriously ill, Ida went to her bedside, tending to her for several weeks until her death in February 1920. She and her brother Chris took in all five of Laura's children: Durward and Clara Dillier (Laura's children by her first marriage), Paul, Virgil (known as Jack) and Vivian. Vivian lived with them until she married Jack King in 1935. After WWII Jack and Vivian and their children lived with her Uncle Chris and Aunt Ida until their deaths.