William Armstead Brooks, Jr.
Dallas Morning News
4 July 1946
BROOKS – William Armstead Jr., 3924 Glenwark Lane, died Wednesday. Survivors: Wife, Mrs. Virginia Brooks; one daughter, Mrs. Bryce Martin, Seguin, Texas, one son, Dr. William Brooks, Dallas; mother, Mrs. W.A. Brooks, Sr., Forney; one brother, James K. Brooks, Forney; one sister, Mrs. Gordon West, Wichita Falls, Texas; one grandchild. Arrangements pending Sparkman-Brand.
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Dallas Cotton Man, Banker Passes Away at Hospital
Dallas Morning News
Thursday, 4 July 1946, Page II-1
William Armstead Brooks Jr., 3924 Glenwick Lane, prominent in the banking and cotton business here for more than twenty-five years, died Wednesday night at Baylor Hospital after a three-week illness. He was president of the Farmers & Merchants Compress and Warehouse Company.
A close friend of President Harry S. Truman, Brooks was a frequent delegate to state and national Democratic conventions.
He was a former president of the Dallas Cotton Exchange, and the Farmers National Bank at Forney and an active member of the Texas Cotton Association and Cotton Shipping Association.
Brooks was born in Forney on Sept. 25, 1898, the son of W.A. Brooks, pioneer banker and cotton man in that area. His uncle, M.M. Brooks was a Mississippi plantation owner and built the first cotton mill in that state.
He was a director of the Oklahoma State Cotton Exchange, the old Dallas-Terrell Interurban Railway, and the Terminal Drayage Company of Houston.
He was married in 1918 to Virginia Randolph, the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. William F. Randolph of Asheville, N.C.
In 1923 Brooks joined the firm of E.B. Guthrie & Company, Inc., cotton merchants, as vice-president. Two years later he formed Brooks & Company, a firm of cotton merchants specializing in export trade with Europe and the Far East.
He was well known in Democratic party circles and was a regular contributor to campaign funds.
Surviving are his wife, a son, Dr. William A. Brooks III, a daughter, Mrs. Bryce Martin, Seguin, Guadalupe County; his mother, Mrs. W.A. Brooks, Forney; a brother, James K. Brooks, Forney; a sister, Mrs. Gordon T. West, Wichita Falls, and one grandchild.
Funeral services are pending with Sparkman-Brand Funeral Home.
Note: According to his death certificate, William Armstead Brooks, Jr. is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery in Forney.
