Jimmie M Brooks

Her older sister Lola Belle was thirteen years older and her maternal cousin Ruth was nine years older, so Jimmie became the de facto older sister to Yvonne and Charles Edward, who she “mothered” into her seventies. Jimmie, always the nurturer, said when she began primary school at Crossroads, she worried about who was going to take care of her younger sister and brother. Amazingly, Jimmie said she did not realize that their mother would be able to look after the younger siblings. Jimmie was a brilliant student. She graduated in 1955 from Turner High School.

She and Isaiah Brooks were married in 1957. Their romance was something out of a storybook. When she was thirteen, she thought I would like to marry someone like him someday. On June 19, 1954 when he was nineteen, he said I am going to marry that girl someday. Two-and-a-half years later, he did, five days before Valentine’s Day. To their union, five children were born: Cathy Linda, Gerry Joe, Delphine Lucretia, Carol Yvette, and Stacey Raynard.

Jimmie worked as a nurse’s aide at Baylor Hospital when Cathy was a toddler. Later, Jimmie became a licensed cosmetologist during her children’s early childhood, then switched professions again and became a nurse. She received her license as a licensed vocational nurse in 1967 and became a registered nurse in 1971. She received her associates degree from El Centro College which has a premier nursing education program. She worked at Parkland Hospital, until she became the caregiver of her parents in 1984. Previously, she had done private duty nursing as well. She briefly resumed her nursing career after her parents’ deaths in 1990 and 1991. At that point her husband decided that there was no point in them both being exhausted and advised her to stop working. She did, but continued her full-time role of taking care of and ministering to other family members and friends.

Jimmie was a faithful Christian servant. She was baptized at Wayside Baptist Church in DeBerry when she was twelve years old along with her future husband’s cousin Dorothy Lee Jeter. She, Isaiah, and her sister Yvonne joined Mt. Rose Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas in 1962. Yvonne went first, and Jimmie and Isaiah followed. She was a charter member of Triumph Missionary Baptist Church. Her church affiliations included church trustee, deaconess president, usher board president, Baptist Training Union Teacher, children’s Sunday school teacher, and usher teacher for the Morning Star District, and Woman of the Year.

She was a Brownie Girl Scout Leader and the secretary of the J.N. Ervin Parent Teacher Association, a member of the Career Women’s Association, and secretary of the Dallas Chapter of the Turner High Alumni Association.

Jimmie is survived by her husband Isaiah; daughters Cathy Brooks, Delphine Baldon, Carol Yvette Jackson; grandchildren Jennifer Padgitt (Samuel), Gary Richard, Stacey Michelle Allen (Chase), Angela Baldon; great-grandchildren Angelique Padgitt, Jayla Sanders, Jeremiah Padgitt, Chase Allen, Zora Mae Allen, Sean Campbell, and John Allen.

Jimmie Mae Gipson Brooks, the wife of Isaiah Brooks was reunited with her parents Jimmie and Bettie Gipson; siblings Lola Mallory, Yvonne Armstrong, Charles Gipson; sons Gerry Joe Brooks and Stacey Raynard Brooks on February 2, 2021 – her mother’s birthday, seven days before her sixty-fourth wedding anniversary, and twelve days before Valentine’s Day.