DARRINGTON A former reporter for The Arlington Times and current member of the Darrington School Board of Directors, Kay Brooks, age 36, did not wake up Sunday morning Jan. 28 when her brother Leo Shuler tried to awaken her in their hotel room in Tacoma, after attending a George Strait concert at Tacoma Dome Saturday night.
She died with a smile on her face, said her mother, Georgine Shuler, who also worked for The Arlington Times through the 1990s. If she had to go so soon, this is the right way. She and her brother had a ball at the concert, Shuler said, adding that Kay will be remembered for making people laugh.
Along with her mother, Brooks leaves her husband, Jody Brooks, and three sons, Kent, 16, Kerry, 13 and Kasey, 11, as well as her sister Martha Jean Moore and husband, Rod Moore, in Woodinville and her brothers Leo, of Marysville, Kenny and wife Terry, of Ontario, Ore. and Faith and his wife, Sue, of Seward, Alaska; and her husbands sbilings, Brandy Brooks and Derek Young and Nate and Maureen Brooks.
Brooks father, Gatrell Shuler died in 1998 and her inlaws, Barb and Albert Brooks also preceded her in death.
Brooks started at the paper as an editorial assistant in fall 1997 and worked her way up to reporter, covering the police beat like no one else, through May 2003. She may go down in history as the author of the controversial April Fools Day story about Jake Brake and the stop signs.
She left The Times for a job with the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, right down the road from her Darrington home. Her most recent position with the tribe was as law enforcement tech at the Sauk-Suiattle Police Department.
She ran the shop over there, keeping all the guys on schedule, said Tribal Chair Janice Mabee.
Kay was always very active and happy, Mabee said. If she ever found out that someone was down in the dumps, it was her mission to cheer them up and make them laugh, Mabee said adding the tribe, as per tradition, will bring flowers to the service, and will provide financial assistance as needed.
A 1989 graduate of Darrington High School, Brooks was queen of the Darrington Timberbowl Rodeo while in high school and she has been active in the community through the years, coaching all kinds of sports for her sons, and playing softball herself. She was elected to the Darrington School Board in the fall of 2005.
Through the years she and her family have enjoyed horseback riding, camping and hunting, as well as car racing.
Lately theyve been doing junior racing with remote control cars at an indoor raceway in Mount Vernon, Shuler said, adding all three boys were enjoying that.
She spent most of her time running the boys around, Shuler added.
No cause for death had been determined by press time, but her mother thinks it might have been a blood clot related to her broken arm. She fell on the ice and broke her arm two weeks ago.
Brooks had been treated for cancer but has been cancer free in recent years.
A memorial service will start at
1 p.m., Friday, Feb. 2 at the First Baptist Church, on SR 530 NE, in Darrington.