The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

BROOKS, LOUIS LEE (1916–1983).

A rodeo all-around cowboy champion, Louis Lee Brooks spent only six years practicing his craft. Born on December 9, 1916, in Comanche County near Fletcher, Oklahoma, Brooks was raised by his grandparents, Hiram and Emma Brooks, after the death of his father, Walter Edward Brooks, in 1919. At that time three generations of the family lived near Ochelata, in Washington County. As a youth Louis Brooks worked cattle on ranches in the area and also on the Bell Ranch in New Mexico.

Circa 1940 he began competing for prize money at local rodeos. His career as a professional lasted a scant six years. During that time he compiled a formidable record of Rodeo Cowboy Association titles, including All-Around Cowboy in 1943 and 1944, Champion Saddle-Bronc Rider in 1943 and 1944, and Champion Bareback-bronc Rider in 1942 and 1944. Retiring in 1945, he became a rancher near Sweetwater, Texas, where he raised Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds. Louis Brooks died on August 6, 1983, and was interred in the Brooks Ranch Cemetery in Nolan County, Texas. His accomplishments are memorialized in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association ProRodeo Hall of Fame and in the Rodeo Historical Society Hall of Fame (at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum).

Dianna Everett