Obituaries : Caryl A. Brooks; Lifelong County Resident

Caryl A. Brooks, a lifelong Ventura County resident, died Saturday at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard after a long bout with kidney disease. She was 57.

Brooks was born June 16, 1939, in Oxnard to Ernest D. and Marie E. Sanchez. She was an agent for the accounting firm Sanchez & Brooks for more than 30 years.

“I met her at a wedding in Santa Paula,” said her husband, Joseph C. Brooks. “She was a friend of the bride and I worked with the groom.”

Joseph Brooks said his wife’s illness kept her close to home, where she concentrated on keeping abreast of changing tax codes and raising four children.

“We couldn’t go too far,” Joseph Brooks said, adding that his wife had a kidney transplant in 1991 but recently ran into complications.

Joseph Brooks said his wife enjoyed seeing movies and going out to dinner with friends. After their daughter, Kiersten Lanahan, became a cheerleader for the Rams and Raiders while the football teams played in Southern California, the couple were also frequent spectators at professional football games, he said.

“We went back to Kansas too, where our son is a coach at the University of Ottawa,” he said.

Brooks is survived by her husband; two daughters, Shannon Brooks of Oxnard and Kiersten Lanahan of Long Beach; two sons, Chad T. Brooks of Ottawa, Kan., and Derek Brooks of Atlanta; and sister Denise Lemieux of Camarillo.

Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Santa Clara Church in Oxnard. Interment will follow at Santa Clara Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations are requested to the National Kidney Foundation, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 1450, Los Angeles 90045.

Arrangements are under the direction of the James A. Reardon Mortuary, Oxnard.