INA MAE BROOKS

LAMAR-Services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Lamar United Methodist Church for Ina Mae Brooks, 80, Lamar, who died Tuesday morning, Sept. 22, 2015, at Truman Healthcare Center, where she had been a resident for the past month. Burial will be in Memory Gardens Cemetery.

Visitation will be held prior to the service, beginning at 9 a.m.

Arrangements are under the direction of Daniel Funeral Home.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Lamar Backpack Program, in care of the funeral home.

Condolences and memories may be shared at www.danielfuneralhome.net.

Survivors include her husband, Charlie Brooks, of the home; two sons, Tim Brooks and wife Lori and Charles Brooks, all of Lamar; a daughter, Sandra Brooks, Eldon; a daughter-in-law, Patti Brooks, Lamar; a brother, Bill Kelley and wife Turid, California; a sister, Dorothy McMackin and husband Bob, Metaline Falls, Wash.; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by a son, Bill Brooks; a sister, Frances Southern and two nieces, Dana Sisk and Barbara Lynn Brown.

Mrs. Brooks was born Nov. 17, 1934, in Detroit, Mich., to Russell and Alice (Camp) Kelley. At the age of eight she was afflicted with polio and spent time in an iron lung machine. While the disease affected her physically, she totally conquered it in every other aspect of her life and was an inspiration to many. In 1948 she moved with her family to a farm north of Milford and graduated from Lamar High School in 1952. She had worked for Aaron's Poultry and Big Smith in Lamar and was a secretary at the Sheltered Workshop and Lamar United Methodist Church for many years before completing her working career at the Independent Living Center in Joplin and Development Center in Lamar.

She was an avid reader and accomplished writer, earning a Missouri Writers guild Award. She served on the Missouri State Rehabilitation Advisory Council and was an ombudsman for Region X Area Agency on Aging. She was an active member of a post-polio support group and Lamar United Methodist Church.

She married the love of her life, Charlie Brooks, on Aug. 31, 1952, at Milford.