Page 29 - Desert Oracle September 2020

Brooks’ time in the Army drew to a close in 1945—a full three years before President Harry S. Truman
ofcially desegregated the U.S. military.

“I had some good times and I had some bad times,” Brooks tells National Geographic. “I just tried to put
all the good ones and the bad ones together and tried to forget about all of them.”

After the war, Brooks worked as a forklift operator. He retired in his 70s and now lives with his daughter
and caretaker, Vanessa Brooks, in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans. He enjoys doting on his 5
children, 5 step-children, 13 grandchildren and more than 20 great-grandchildren, per Ryan Prior and
Lauren M. Johnson of CNN.

Brooks’ wife, Leona, died in 2005 following the couple’s evacuation by helicopter during Hurricane
Katrina. The storm “took everything I owned, washed away everything,” he later refected.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Afairs, just 389,292 of the 16 million Americans who served
in World War II were still alive in September 2019. On average, 294 veterans die each day.

Those who wish to send cards to Brooks can mail them to the address below.

The National WWII Museum
c/o Happy 111th Mr. Brooks!

945 Magazine St.
​New Orleans, LA 70130

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Nora McGreevy is a freelance journalis based in South Bend, Indiana. Her work has appeared in Wired,
Washingtonian, the Boson Globe, South Bend Tribune, the New York Times and more. She can be reached through
her website, noramcgreevy.com.

Read more from this author | Follow @mcgreevynora