SOUTHLAND : Will Rogers’ Daughter Mary, 76, Dies in a Santa Monica Hospital
Mary Rogers Brooks, the only daughter of humorist Will Rogers, died today at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica after a brief illness. She was 76.
She died at 5:50 a.m. from complications associated with cancer, said hospital spokeswoman Paulette Weir. She will be interred with her parents and brother, Fred, in the family sarcophagus at the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore, Okla., curator Greg Malak said.
Brooks performed on stage and in movies in the 1930s under the stage name Mary Howard. On Broadway, she performed in “On to Fortune” and “Crime Marches On.” Her last movie was “My Weakness.”
“I decided I really didn’t want to be an actress,” she said afterward. When she quit, Will Rogers quipped: “She’s back in the kitchen.”
She spent much of her life in Mexico, Italy, Spain and Morocco and Greece. Malak said she had returned to her home in Westwood in November.
She is survived by her brothers, Will Rogers Jr. of Tubac, Ariz., and James B. Rogers of Bakersfield.
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