B. Adelaide Sasse

B. Adelaide Brooks Sasse, known to family and friends as "Brooks", was born August 22,1922 to Harry Brooks and Carrie (Roof) Brooks on the family farm outside of Newton, New Jersey, the fourth of nine children. She died March 28, 2016, surrounded by her family. Brooks graduated from Newton High School in 1939 as the class Valedictorian and was accepted at Mountainside Hospital School of Nursing in Montclair, New Jersey, graduating in 1943 as Honor Graduate. She enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps, where she became known as "Brooks". She served in primitive conditions in the Philippines where she rode a tank to work, and in Occupied Japan, she helped convert a department store to a working hospital. While in Japan, she met an Army airman, Alfred Sasse, whom she later married. When she returned to the states, she was stationed at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. Brooks was given special duties such as searching Japanese Embassy officials and their wives for contraband when they returned from Europe, and taking the valuables found to a holding area. Another special assignment was to accompany three rail cars of Italian war brides and children from New York to Chicago. At each stop, she had to make sure only the correct people got off and were met by the proper authorities. Her last service assignment was on a ship that sailed from New York to Europe and back to bring wounded U.S. troops home to the States. She made several trips before Alfred drove from Nebraska to New York, and in a hectic few days, managed the paperwork to get married and released from her assignment in the Army, just before she was due to set sail for another six- month trip. Brooks was discharged from active duty January 1948 at the rank of 1st Lieutenant. The couple moved to Nebraska where they lived in Diller, Columbus, and Lincoln. Together, they raised four children, spending many summer days at their cabin at Wagner Lakes in Columbus, swimming and waterskiing. Brooks took up nursing again, working at Bryan Hospital in the Emergency Room and in the surgical ward. She was asked to be on the first heart team at Bryan Hospital. Brooks was active in Girl Scouting for almost 60 years, serving as troop leader for her daughters as well as Cookie Sales Chairman for the area. She and Alfred loved to travel and together they visited every U.S. state capital. She collected plates from all the places she visited. Brooks is survived by her four children and their spouses; Sandra Sasse of LaVista, NE, Gregory (Linda) Sasse of Littleton, CO, Anita (Lyle) Mohlman of Lincoln, NE, and Joann (Will) Wright of Omaha, NE, and by six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter, as well as several nieces, nephews, and friends. She is also survived by her brother Harry (Eva) Brooks, and sisters Alice Harris and Mildred Dubiel, all from New Jersey, and sister Elsie (Harry) Reed from Edmond, Washington. Brooks was preceded in death by her husband Alfred Sasse, and her parents Harry and Carrie Brooks, sisters Dorthy Puffer, Marion Emmans, and brothers William Brooks, George Brooks,