Bertha JoAnn Brook's Obituary
JoAnn “Jody” Brook passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on September 28, 2022, at the age of 89.
She is survived by her life-partner Bill Wood, son Ron Howard, daughter Susan Williams, sister Betty Gower, brother Dean Baxter, granddaughters Haylee Carroll and Lyndsay Hasbrouck, grandson Dustin Howard, great-granddaughters Layla Drury, Avery Loomis, Alexis Guillot, Maygen Guillot, great grandsons Treston Lamb, Korbin Lamb, Trey Smith, Jameson Carroll and Copen Gerica, great-great granddaughters LilyAnn Gerica and Madilyn Howard and great-great grandsons Nikki Lamb and Landyn Howard and great-grand-nephew Spencer McCall.
She was preceded in death by her mother Rhoda Nell Baxter; father; Orus Ezra Baxter; brother; Richard “Son” Baxter; son Charles “Chuck” Howard; daughter Sally Ann Remmert; grandsons Jason Guillot and Toby Howard.
Jody was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 1, 1933, to Orus Ezra Baxter and Rhoda Nell Huie. She graduated from Central High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma and became a homemaker raising her four children Chuck, Ron, Susan, and Sally. When the children were young, they traveled the country while her late husband Charlie Howard worked on the pipeline. Jody told stories of some interesting and scary places during the 1950s and 1960s that the pipeline took them but no matter the circumstances she made the most of wherever they were. They settled in Tulsa where the kids grew up and went to school.
Jody accomplished many things in her lifetime including being a business owner which was uncommon for women at the time. She was owner of Grand Prix Auto Sports Centers with second husband Jon Brook and spent years involved in Tulsa’s auto racing community, at the Tulsa Speedway and Stock Car Races. Her children have fond memories of the early years of Tulsa’s drag racing scene when mom drove the push car pushing their dragster to the starting line for her second husband Jon Brook’s dragster in the family station wagon with kids in tow. She and her long-time life partner, Bill Wood, also owned Billy’s Daylight Donut’s in Tulsa from which they successfully retired in the late 90’s. Jody was a member of many social clubs including the Red Hat Society and a local social sorority. She attended line dancing classes at the Broken Arrow Senior Center and enjoyed socializing at weekly luncheons with her group of high school girl friends.
She was a huge part of her family as the family matriarch, as she liked to be called. She loved shopping with her daughter Susan and going to movies with her son Ron. She enjoyed attending her granddaughter Lyndsay’s sporting and school events. She continued this tradition with her great-granddaughters Layla and Avery and attended as many extracurricular activities as she could. She and Bill would take Lyndsay to Silver Dollar City in Branson every summer growing up and even though she didn’t like riding the rollercoasters she would wave from the bottom as Bill and Lyndsay rode up to the top! She also loved traveling to the horse races with Bill and their close friends Kim and Wayne Nees. In her later years, she loved spending time with her great-granddaughters baking and crafting projects that sometimes didn’t turn out the way they planned but they laughed and ate it in whatever form it came out. She was a woman of traditions and faithfully baked a pineapple upside down cake every year for Bill’s birthday, never wore white pants after Labor Day and only attended events to which she was formally invited. She loved Elvis, jazz music, reading books, watching hummingbirds in her garden, and keeping her garden fresh with pretty flowers.
Jody will be interred at Floral Haven in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and the family invites you to celebrate Jody’s life in the Floral Haven Family Center on October 14, 2022, at 3:00 p.m.
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