Mary Beth Brooks
1952 – 2022
A remarkable musician, beloved mom and “Mammy,” and gifted kid-magnet, Mary Beth Brooks passed from this life in the early hours of July 22, 2022, at her home in Edmond. Mary was surrounded by her husband Steve and family devoted to her care.
Mary Beth deFreese was born on April 3, 1952, in the small town of Wayne, Nebraska. She was affectionately known as “Bittsy” because she was tiny at birth, a nickname only a few close family and Nebraska friends knew.
While some people never stop to smell the roses, that was not how Mary lived her life. She demonstrated her love for family and friends with notes, attention, kind words and warmth. Even as her health declined during the last three years, and her freedom was limited, “people were drawn to her,” family said.
Mary was the youngest of three daughters born to Seifke Kenneth deFreese and Mary Elizabeth (Walling) deFreese, for whom Mary was named.
As a child, Mary loved to play with toy horses. She was infatuated with Davy Crocket, always wearing a coonskin hat everywhere. She enjoyed life as the daughter and granddaughter of Lutheran ministers who taught her essential life values, encouraged her faith, and fueled her love for others. In grade school and junior high, Mary raced horses bareback in county rodeos. Her photo albums are full pictures of horses, with notes and awards from her competitive races.
In high school, she drove a 1950-something American Rambler, which she named “Pinkie,” and spent most days with many of her childhood friends, who now days call themselves the “Wild Women of Wayne.” Altogether they were “partners in crime.”
Mary began playing flute in fifth grade and never put it down. She was greatly influenced by her older sister Nancy, an accomplished flute player as well. Early on she earned First Chair in her competitive high school band program. The most coveted prize for band was the John Phillips Souza Award, which she earned her senior year, along with many other awards for precision and dedication. She enjoyed music competitions representing the Wayne High School Blue Devils, where she graduated in 1970. She also played piccolo, guitar and piano.
She attended Wayne State College for one year, then married, giving birth to a daughter, Kirstin Elizabeth, in 1980.
Later at Oklahoma State University, she earned a master’s in music education and enjoyed performing in the OSU Marching Band. After graduation, she taught at OSU in woodwinds, along with many private lessons with flute students. She also taught at Phillips University in Enid and Oral Roberts University in Tulsa.
Mary spent a decade raising Western Pleasure Quarter Horses for sheer enjoyment and profit, but most of all she drank in the artistic masterpiece form, which she loved to ride and draw and dream about.
Mary met Steve Brooks by coincidence in 2001. After a period of time of dating they took a trip to Branson where he surprised her by asking her to take his hand in marriage only six weeks after they met. She said “yes” and this began a 20-year storybook romance which they both nurtured in love and covenant through life’s challenges which included Mary’s decline in health in later years.
Mary took a job in alumni development and teaching flute at the University of Science and Arts in Chickasha, where Steve was working as director of campus dining. They were married on Dec. 21, 2001, in the Alumni Chapel on campus, surrounded by their new family of faculty and staff who had embraced the Brooks as their own. Since her father had passed, Mary was given away by (the late) Bill Smith, a campus leader and friend to the couple.
After they left Science and Arts, Mary continued on in prospect research at Oklahoma City University. She continued to hone her skills in this field and moved on to Oklahoma State University’s Foundation a few years later. The couple settled in Edmond, Mary commuting to Stillwater and Steve to Oklahoma City. Both Steve and Mary were avid road cyclists and Lance Armstrong fans when the opportunity came for Mary to work for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. They moved to Austin, then came back to their home in Edmond two years later. Mary continued to work remotely for Livestrong for the next two years from home.
Her experience in prospect research landed her back at OSU, this time as director of the department. She retired from her career after six years with OSU Foundation in 2018.
With an infectious smile and sense of humor, Mary entertained her co-workers, grandchildren and neighborhood kids with voices, characters, dance parties, Halloween pranks, and April-Fools-Day surprises. She loved people more than money or things, and that served her well as a team leader and family anchor.
Mary was preceded in death by her parents, Siefke “Kenneth” and Mary deFreese her paternal grandparents, Siefke and Martha deFreeze and her maternal grandparents.
Mary is survived by her beloved husband Steve; a daughter, Kirstin Elizabeth Toland, and husband Devon, and their sons, Grayson and Alexander; sisters Sue Larsen and husband Don and sons Don T. and Doug; and Nancy Domagala, her partner Bill Donaldson, and her sons Mathew and Damon; four stepchildren Grant Brooks and husband Michael Davis; Seth Brooks and wife, Heather; Evan Brooks and Sarah Brooks; and the Brooks grandchildren: Alliyah, Amari, Alexa, Ayson, Carson, Ian and Harper. Mary also is survived by her mother-in-law, Euline Brooks; and Steve’s brothers Randy, with his wife Amy and sons Nick and Andrew; Radd and his daughter Leah; and Perry, with his wife, Karla and their children Austin and Emily.
A memorial service is scheduled at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 30, 2022, at Matthews Funeral Home in Edmond.
In lieu of flowers, friends are invited to make gifts to iCan Bike OKC, in care of iCan Shine,
P.O. Box 541, Paoli, Pennsylvania, 79301.
We will be live streaming this service in an effort to accommodate those people that wish to attend but feel they should not due to health regulations. To watch the service CLICK HERE to go to our YouTube page. Click on ‘Videos’, then ‘Live Streams’.