My Dad was the best!!

No matter how old we get, a girl never outgrows her need or love for her daddy. My dad was indeed one of a kind....sweet, funny, happy, knowledgeable, silly and with a love for his Lord that never waivered. Gene was born "Eugene Brooks" with no middle name, but other than that, he doesn't know a lot about his birth. He doesn't know when he was born or where. He was the 7th of 8 children and was probably born on a farm somewhere near Bonham, Texas; the doctor on duty that day probably had to go deliver some cows or horses too and he never recorded dad's birth. Cow, horse, human...it didn't matter back then I guess....almost 95 years ago!

Dad's family sorta fell apart after his parents divorced and he commenced to live with 11 different families or friends until he married my mom, Eleanor Beazley, in 1941. They were married 68 years! For a period of time, he lived with his uncle, Amon Carter, in some big white house on the west side of Ft. Worth. Amon, the namesake for the TCU football stadium, was a character who had more money than necessary; he started the Ft. Worth Star Telegram and has had an airport and museum named after him and was some big wig way back when. Dad said it was nothing to come downstairs and see some famous person sitting at the breakfast table. He remembers seeing Will Rogers and Charles Lindberg there one morning. I remember going to Amon's funeral; I was 8 years old and I don't remember much about him but did wonder if we would get any of his money. Yeah, right!! While he lived there, Amon's wife told dad that all men needed a middle name so she gave him the name Carter. Somebody else he lived with asked him one day when he wanted his birthday and he said, "tomorrow" and that happened to be November 27th. They thought the year was 1915 but years later discovered that that would make him only 3 months older than his youngest sister so he must have been born in 1914. As a small boy he was in Vaudeville and also traveled with the carnival for a while. What a wild beginning to a great life. He told me once, "I love life; I'd like to do it again...well, most of it anyway".

Dad's family was definitely on the small side; he was 5'4" and he was one of the bigger boys. Some of his brothers were jockeys in Kentucky. Wish he had been; I always wanted a horse! Now you pair that up with my mom who is 5'3" and you get short children and short grandchildren and on and on until someone marries tall; so far, no one has!! His height never bothered him. He was tall in my eyes. I loved his sense of humor. He always had a crazy saying, goofy look, smirky smile and the greatest hugs ever!! I already miss them.











Dad loved history, especially the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. When Dad got to heaven, I bet he saw God on his throne in the middle, with Jesus on the right hand side and Abe Lincoln on the left. When I was 10, one vacation I remember was when we drove our '58 Buick all over what seemed to be the entire eastern 1/3 of the country looking at every Civil War battlefield there was. We had to take our picture beside every sign, cannon, fort and graveyard! After several days of this, I was a little bored and my sister, Sherry, and I couldn't wait to go to the cheesy motels and swim in their pool. My love of history wasn't as deep as his!! Every day from April 1961-1965, we received one to ten self-addressed letters in our mailbox with the 100th year anniversary stamp commemorating every battle in the Civil War and it was postmarked by the postmaster in that town with "First Day Issue" stamped on it. He had them all nicely bound in books with notes about each battle. If anyone knows anyone who would want these for a school or museum, call me!! I remember I always hated to ask Dad a history question because he wouldn't just give me the answer, he had to start way back to the Roman Empire to get me the answer to something in WWII!! All I wanted was the answer so I could be finished with the homework and could go play basketball in the driveway!!

Dad loved sports; he taught me football and how to throw a spiral. He loved the Cowboys but really only when Roger Staubach and Tom Landry were there; he wasn't much on Jerry Jones......who is??? He never could get over pro basketball players and their shorts that are too baggy and that they "travel with the ball" all the time. I'd have to agree with both. He loved track and excelled in that. He told me a 100 times how he set a record in the 60 yard dash in high school by not getting caught when he jumped the gun....it's not a sin unless you get caught! He also told me how he dug holes in the ground to get a better start because they didn't have starting blocks back then.

I was a church rat and loved everything about it; the people, the music, the leaders, the fun but the best was Camp!! I couldn't wait to go to camp and always wanted to stay there for 2 weeks. I continued my love for camp until a few years ago; at last count, I have been to 58 camps and several years went to 2-3 a summer. That's a long time on a bunk bed....except most of the time I was out creating havoc all night and never slept much. My mom and dad always went to Camp and were sponsors. Every group had to do a skit and some were more on the line of productions rather than silly skits. Dad's was no exception! He worked for weeks on these skits and usually won "Best Skit" which was a big deal back then! He also did skits at church and was sometimes in the musicals we did; he rarely had a serious part! He was well known for his pantomime of Andy Griffith's, "What it was, was Football"....a goofy monologue about a country bumkin that wandered into a football game and had no clue what they were doing. You could probably find it on You Tube nowadays but back then you could only find it at Sagamore Hill Baptist Church.

Dad worked at General Dynamics in Fort Worth for 26 years and was the purchasing agent for the F-111 and B-26. He also worked at Texlite in Dallas for 5 years where they made the big flying red horse for Mobil Gas. The largest one is still on some building in downtown Dallas. We have one in the downstairs of my house...what on earth will I do with it when Bill dies!!! If you know someone who wants it, call me!! I might throw in the Civil War books for free and the 20 years of National Geographic that I promised I wouldn't throw away. He would never let me cut anything out of those; you would have thought they were part of the Bible!! Speaking of the Bible, he knew it very well also and taught Sunday School for years. I was afraid to ask him a Biblical question because I figured he'd start back with Adam and Eve and I just wanted to know something about the crucifixion...there's a lot of time in between those two events!!

When we lived in Dallas, I was 5 to 10 years old. We lived in a fun neighborhood and Dad made it that way. If the neighbors left town for a trip, they came home to who-knows-what done to their house. No one locked their doors so it was easy to get into. He did the usual Syran Wrap on the potty, string all wrapped around everything in the house but the best was the vacuum cleaner under their bed on a timer that would go off about 3:00 in the morning! As far as I know, no one had a heart attack, just several cases of severe panic and calling of the cops. Mom would also make them a chocolate mud pie topped with whipped cream to welcome them home. I've made several of these; the best ingredient is sand from the long jump pit at my school. It's a great joke. If you need the recipe, call me. I'll sell it to you along with the Civil War books and flying red horse!

Dads are more than funny skits, pranks, vacations, answers for homework and money for junk kids want....My Dad was unconditional love, integrity, discipline, Biblical morals and values, consistency, encourager, memories, laughs galore, love for my mom and her dogs, love for God and His church and the greatest PeePaw 5 grand kids ever knew. Robyn, Jenny, Melissa, David and Jaime loved him very much. He loved all of them dearly and prayed for them all the time!! We always hoped these prayers were not at the dinner table. He prayed for every kid, grand kid, leader, president, missionary, czar, sick person and world affair until pretty soon the meal was stone cold and the kids had fallen fast asleep face down in the broccoli! I will miss all that my Dad was but I thank God everyday that he was my dad!! What a happy, Christian legacy he left!! I'll sell you everything I have except the memories of my Dad. He wrote a biography and titled it, "Leave 'Em Laughing"......I can't wait to see his laugh and smile again in Heaven with all of his family! I love you Daddy!!