Susan Brooks with granddaughter, Poppy
Susan Brooks wore many hats in Lake Highlands and throughout Dallas. If you knew her as your trusted estate planner, you may not have been aware of her work as a longtime volunteer with Lake Highlands Women’s League. If you traveled with her to Haiti, where she and sister Caroline Hazlett led a mission to provide medical care for some of the most impoverished residents of the Western Hemisphere, you may not have known she spent years as an advisor to SMU Delta Delta Deltas and was president of their local alumnae chapter. If you knew her from bible study or book club, where she had a keen ability to get at the root of a particularly complicated or meaningful passage, you may not have known she was a member of the Dallas Running Club and logged hours on local streets and trails each week. If you sat cross-legged on the floor with her loading care packages for servicemembers with the Military Moms Club, you may not have been aware that she earned the Georgia Bates Award from Highland Park United Methodist Women for her years of dedication to missions and service to the community.
Susan died May 2 from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Ironic, since she was routinely the smartest person in the room.
A perpetual overachiever, Susan Willbanks was cheerleader, homecoming queen and valedictorian at Dallas’ Lakehill Preparatory School before earning undergraduate and law degrees from SMU. She began her legal career in 1984 with Storey Armstrong Steger & Martin, working closely with distinguished attorneys including Robert Gerald Storey, who played a pivotal role in collecting indisputable evidence of war crimes used to convict Nazis including Rudolf Hess and Hermann Goring. She opened a private practice in 1997 and continued working as an estate planner until her diagnosis.
Susan married her high school sweetheart 42 years ago and often said Bill Brooks was the only man she ever dated. Jimmy and Courtney Brooks are expecting their third son and are currently moving to Denver, while Jeffrey and Holland Brooks are enjoying their darling daughter here in Lake Highlands. You may read more about Susan’s large and loving family in her obituary here.
A service to celebrate Susan’s life will be held on Tuesday, May 12 at 3 p.m. in the sanctuary of Highland Park United Methodist Church, 3300 Mockingbird Lane. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made online here to the Haiti Mission of HPUMC.
