John W. Brooks II started the last day of his life just as he had started every other for months. Despite his failing health, he woke up early Monday, cleaned up, shaved and sat in his favorite chair.
He didn’t believe in staying in bed, no matter how he was feeling.
“He worked right till the end,” said his nephew Rob Brooks. “He would rest, sure, but he would also do business and receive guests.
“He was going to live and die with his boots on. And he did.”
About 5 a.m. Monday, John Brooks died of pulmonary fibrosis, according to his daughter, Pat Gordon.
The last grandchild of Harriet Catherine and John Thomas Brooks, the founder of old Camp Walton, died one day short of his 76th birthday.
He’d had a family dinner the day before to celebrate.
“My dad was all about history, and being the last of the grandchildren, he was always there for his brothers and sisters,” his daughter said.
His wife, Jenny Brooks, also survives him, as does his son and namesake, John W. Brooks III.
Brooks was a long-time real estate agent whose many contributions to the area included helping save his old one-room Camp Walton Schoolhouse, which now is a museum.
Rob Brooks said everyone who met his uncle felt special about it. It was his firm handshake and the way he made eye contact with everyone, and his sincerity in both.
“He treated everybody with the same honesty and respect, and he had a long, good career because of that,” Rob Brooks said.
John was a lifelong member of First Baptist Church of Fort Walton Beach, which began meeting in his family’s home when he was a child.
“When he was a little boy, his mom would ask him to sing in front of the church, and then he could go out and play,” Gordon said.
Gordon said he continued to go to church with his family until he no longer could. Some of her sweetest memories are of being in church with her dad.
“He held my hand in church when we prayed,” she said. “I could hear him singing in my ear. I miss him.
“I miss his voice singing.”
Brooks also was closely connected with Beulah First Baptist Church. His father had given the original land for the church to the black community, said Pastor Scottie Thigpen, a close friend of Brooks for three decades.
“John was a very concerned, loving, giving person,” Thigpen said. “Didn’t meet any strangers. Had no color barriers.
“We just had a good longtime bond. We were more like brothers, I guess, than friends.”
