Charles Brooks

1945 - 2017

Charles Joseph Brooks, 71, passed from this life on March 31, 2017, in Stratford. Services will be held at Hamilton's Funeral Home, 605 Lyon Street, Des Moines, at 1:00 p.m., Friday, April 7, 2017. The family will greet friends from 7 to 9 p.m., Thursday, April 6, 2017, also at the funeral home.

Charles was born in Des Moines, June 5, 1945, to J. Archie and Gwendolyn Brooks. He grew up on the Southside and spent his youth working in the family business with his father and uncle at B&B Grocery, and his mother's restaurant, The Sevastopol Café. After two years at Drake University, he worked as a real estate and insurance salesman, and as assistant manager at the Wakonda Country Club. He worked in the food and beverage business throughout the seventies, owning several clubs including the first disco in Iowa, the City Disco Park.

During the eighties, he was a restaurant manager and department head with Marriott Hotels in Des Moines, Lexington, Kentucky, New York City, and Saddle Brook, New Jersey. He owned "The Barbell Club" in the early nineties and finished his working life as a counsel working at the Iowa Workforce Development Building for 12 years, retiring in 2007.

Charles is survived by two brothers, John A. Brooks Sr., J. Archie Brooks Jr., and twelve nieces and nephews, of which he was particularly close to two nephews, John A. Brooks Jr. and Joseph A. Brooks Sr., both of Des Moines, and two nieces, Kathryn Kooyman of Des Moines and Elizabeth Kooyman of Los Angeles, whom he visited many times.

Preceding Charles in death are his parents, his stepfather, Dale Rummans, his brother, Donald (Pete) Brooks, his sister, Jane Kooyman and his nephew, James Brooks.

Charles expressed many times how he so liked his neighbors, with the many close friendships, in the Condominium on Grand where he had lived since 2000, and so enjoyed.