Foster Brooks

F oster Robinson Brooks of Tunkhannock died Friday evening in the Tyler Memorial Hospital in Tunkhannock. He was born in Mehoopany on March 24, 1911, son of the late Jared Robinson and Hattie McNeal Brooks.
In his youth he was a skilled athlete and was a member of the Mehoopany baseball team in the 1920s and ’30s. He was an avid ice skater.
Foster learned carpentry skills from his father and enjoyed renovating his home. He built himself a camping trailer from scratch. He taught himself sign painting and painted many signs for local businesses in the area. Although he wished to enlist in World War II, his skills as a machinist made him valuable to Whitney and Pratt and IBM. For over 40 years he worked as a projectionist at the Dietrich Theater in Tunkhannock. He was a nature lover who found great pleasure in photography of wildlife, plants and the outdoors. He built a large collection of slides which he shared with his friends and community. He was a collector of antique pictures of Wyoming County. For several years he did aerial mapping of Wyoming County, with his friend, Ben Chambers, serving as pilot.
He was a member of the Mehoopany United Methodist Church and a 50-year member of Temple Lodge 248 F&AM of Tunkhannock. He was preceded in death by a daughter, Martha Tydings, and a brother, Ray Brooks.
Surviving him is wife of 63 years, Hazelle Allen Brooks; son and daughter-in-law, Allen and Donna Brooks of Tunkhannock; daughter and son-in-law Millie and Charles Grime, of Sebring, Fla.; grandchildren, Rick McNeill of Atlanta, Ga.; granddaughter and husband, Nora and Joe Weder, of Lancaster, Pa.; grandson and wife Tim and Judi Brooks, of Bethlehem, Pa.; six great-grandchildren, Jared Robinson Brooks, Christian, Joshua and Casey Weder, Trevor and Cody McNeill. Nephews, Lynn Brooks, of Tunkhannock, Corey Brooks, of Endicott, N.Y.
Funeral services will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday from the Mehoopany United Methodist Church with the Rev. Jean L. Swett. Interment will be in Vaughn Cemetery, Mehoopany. Friends may call at the church on Tuesday from 3 p.m. until the time of service. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Mehoopany United Methodist Church or to the Wyoming County Historical Society. Arrangements by the Sheldon-Kukuchka Funeral Home Inc., 73 W. Tioga St. Tunkhannock.