Brooke Ertel

Brooke Boroughs Ertel, 84, of Matthews, North Carolina, died peacefully on Feb. 22, 2025.

Mrs. Ertel was born Bonnie Brooke Boroughs on Oct. 17, 1940, in Charleston, South Carolina, to Martin Luther Boroughs and Jessie Brookbanks Boroughs. She attended Citadel Square Baptist Church in Charleston and was baptized there in 1948. She graduated North Charleston High School in 1958 and Magna Cum Laude from Furman University in 1962.

On Jan. 31, 1965, she married Thomas N. Ertel at Cooper River Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina. They lived in Elkhart, Indiana, for 28 years and retired to Greensboro, Georgia, in 1998 where Mrs. Ertel was a former member of First Baptist Church and a charter member of Grace Fellowship Church. In 2021, Tom and Brooke relocated to Windsor Run community in Matthews, North Carolina, where they were members of Christ Covenant Church.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Tom Ertel. She is survived by her two sons, Tom Ertel Jr., of Prosperity, South Carolina, and Will Ertel (Debbie) of Charlotte, North Carolina; one sister, Beth Boroughs Glenn of Morristown, Tennessee; one brother, Martin L. Boroughs Jr. (Chris) of Mount Pleasant, South Carollina; three granddaughters who loved her as "Mimi," Hannah Hodge (Sam) of Brevard, North Carolina, Leah McPhail (Mitchell) of Beaufort, South Carolina, and Elizabeth Crisp (Joshua) of Chattanooga, Tennessee; and two great-granddaughters, Judah Eleanor Hodge and Margot Bonnie McPhail.

In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made in Brooke's memory to the Spencer Bradley Foundation through the Athens Area Community Foundation in Athens, Georgia, or to the American Diabetes Association at www.diabetes.org.

The family will arrange a private family burial service in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina, at a later date.