Mark Brooks - My Dad

Mark Brooks in Lake Tahoe

My father, Mark Lyndol Brooks, was born on October 10, 1953 to Wheat and Jean Brooks. He was delivered at Methodist Hospital in Oak Cliff, Texas. He said his parent were very loving and godly parents. They always took him and his sister, Judy, to church every Sunday and were always involved in the church.  My dad and his sister were always given what they needed and some of what they wanted even when they didn’t necessarily have the money for it. Wheat, my granddad, is from Cooper, Texas and Jean, my grandmother, was from Commerce, Texas. After they married they moved to Dallas and lived there until they moved to Rockwall in 1987, just before I was born. Growing up I remember my grandparents living right next door to us and I loved it. I was so spoiled by them and I still am today.

Mark Brooks

My dad said that his favorite childhood memories were playing baseball and spending the summers with his grandparents. His favorite part about playing baseball was the “hope” of hitting a home run and his mom and dad cheering him on. I didn’t know that my dad used to spend the summers with his grandparents; I think its cool because I used to spend the summers with my grandparents and ride my four-wheeler. Now that my grandmother has passed I miss the precious time I had with her.

His father was in the automobile business, from what I remember he was kind of like a mechanic. Ever since I can remember, my granddad could always fix everything and he would always fix my four-wheeler when it would break. His mom worked for an insurance company and she used to work with my mom in Dallas.

JJ Gonzales, Mark Brooks, Hannah Brooks

My dad went to school in the Dallas Independent School District and he said that school back then had more discipline, they had longer summer vacations and had more one-on-one attention.

Even though I grew up in split homes and lived with my mom most of the time, I still have learned a lot from my dad. He always explains things to me in a very simple and easy to follow way that I understand. The main thing that I learned from my father is how to control my finances. He always gives me advice on how to save my money and how to “save for a rainy day”. He knows what he is talking about when it comes to money. 

My mom - DeLana Hood (Nease)

My mother, DeLana Hood, maiden name Nease, was born January 3, 1954 in Roswell, New Mexico.  She said, “No, I am not an alien like everybody thinks since they assume aliens are from Roswell”.

Her mother and father divorced when she was three years old and her mother came to Commerce, Texas with her on a Greyhound bus and lived with her grandparents.  Her father was in the navy so she did not see him much.  Her mother married her stepfather, Roy Thomas, on July 5, 1958, one year later.  They bought a house on Dixie Street in Commerce and she lived in that house until she married in 1972.  Her mother did not work until she was in middle school and the only elementary school was three blocks from their house so every day her mother fixed lunch and she walked home for lunch.   My mom was an only child but had lots of cousins so there were always kids around her house.  She said she had lots of friends in the neighborhood.  They didn’t have much money but she always had everything she needed.  My mom was a good student, making A’s and a few B’s.

My mom said, “It seemed like I would always have a fish fry on Friday nights at my house.  My mother would drive all the way to Oklahoma to get the fresh fish.  We had a metal tub and we filled it with ice and put soft drinks in it.  My stepfather would string lights around the porch and bring my stereo outside for music”.  Lots of her cousins and friends enjoyed the fish fry.  In high school, she made cheerleader her senior year and really enjoyed cheering.  She was also in several clubs, i.e., Future Homemakers Of America, the Spanish Club and Choir.  She placed 11^th in her class out of a class of 94.  My mom met my dad her junior year in high school.  They married on June 2, 1972, after graduating high school.    Their first son, Brad, was born February 20, 1979, the same day as my grandma’s 51^st birthday.  They lived in Dallas, and in 1987 they moved to Rockwall, Texas.  Their second son, me, Jordan, was born April 8, 1988.   My mom and dad were married 22 years before divorcing in 1994. 

My moms only granddaughter, Hannah, was born July 15, 2005.  She is such a smart little girl.  My mom’s mother still has many relatives who live in the Commerce area.  The community of Horton, near Commerce, was named after my grandmothers father’s family.  My mom said, “I have seen the university in Commerce grow from being a state college, then to a university and now is associated with the A & M system.”