Dayna Brooks; Lifelong Resident, Mother of Four
Lifelong county resident Dayna Brooks was trying to work her way out of a troubled past when she was killed early Sunday in a single-car traffic accident. She was 32.
Born Feb. 3, 1966, in Oxnard, Brooks, a single mother, was struggling to overcome a history of drug addiction and jail time, relatives say. She was living in Santa Paula with her parents and her four children.
Brooks, who had left a Santa Paula bar earlier in the evening, died after driving her parents’ car into a parked tractor-trailer about 2:39 a.m.
Relatives say she was unemployed but was training for secretarial work.
“She was looking forward to getting a house,” said her mother, Christine Brooks. “She was wanting to turn her life around.”
“She was a people person,” Brooks said. “She loved her children.”
Brooks is survived by sons, Jacob, 12, and Jeremy, 10; and daughters Savannah, 8, and Ashley, 7; parents Christine and Joe Brooks; sisters Susan Brooks, Jana Smith, and Elaine Hernandez; and a brother, Joe Jr.
Funeral arrangements are pending, according to the family,
More to Read
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.