Obituary of Alice Elizabeth Hutchinson Brooks

Alice Elizabeth (Betty) Hutchinson Brooks passed away at her home on Riverside Drive, Pine Beach, NJ, on August 25, 2016. She was 91 years old, the daughter of Julia and John Wesley Hutchinson of Fall River, MA. She was a child of the Great Depression and kept some of its habits (she was a dedicated recycler of plastic bags long before it became fashionable) until the end of her life. Her childhood was marred by hardship and loss, though you'd never have heard that from her. She was a proud graduate of Dean Academy (now College) in Franklin, MA and the Rhode Island Hospital School of Nursing, Class of 1946, in Providence, RI. She met the love of her life, William Alexander (Bill) Brooks, Jr., upon his demobilization from the United States Navy at Quonset, RI, where she was living with her half-sister Ruth while attending nursing school. Bill had served two years as a Lieutenant with the engineering corps in the Pacific. The couple married in 1946 and settled initially in Long Branch, NJ. Betty and her husband raised five daughters living first in Westfield, then Chester, and provisionally, Toms River, before coming to rest in Pine Beach, NJ in 1971. She and her husband were founding members of the United Church of Christ of Toms River, NJ. After raising her children she obtained her bachelor’s degree in Health Education and worked for the Ocean County Health Department. She volunteered for the Child Placement Review Board and, after retirement, with Caregivers of Toms River and the Pine Beach Municipal Alliance. She and her husband enjoyed camping and the occasional Elderhostel trip. After his death, she volunteered on several Habitat for Humanity projects. Betty was an optimist, certainly rosier and more open-minded in outlook than her childhood sorrows might ordinarily have engendered. She managed somehow to look on the bright side, almost always. She was pre-deceased by her husband in 1992 and her youngest daughter, Wendy Alice Brooks, in 2006. She was loved and will be greatly missed by her daughters Susan Ford Brooks (and Eric Harris) of Lincoln, MA ; Sugandha nee Jane Elizabeth Brooks of Crestone, CO; Nancy Brooks (and Michael) Krembs of Binghamton, NY; and Ellen Lee Brooks of Pine Beach, NJ; and her grandchildren Sarah Krembs, of Elmhurst, NY; Josiah Krembs, of Sleepy Hollow, NY; Lydia Krembs of Albany, NY; Luke Krembs of Ft Lauderdale, FL: William (and Angelica) Krembs of Johnson City, NY; Kathryn Krembs of Binghamton, NY; Jake Brooks-Harris of Los Angeles and Gabe Brooks-Harris of New York City. Her family will memorialize her, her husband and her youngest daughter at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Holy Redeemer Hospice, 1228 Route 37W, Toms River, NJ 08755 or your local Salvation Army. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”