Charlene Mary Brooks

Charlene Mary was born at home in Kuna, Idaho on April 3 1932 to Charley and Mary Hudson. She married Bobby Lee Smith and they had 2 children, Cheri and Neal, and later divorced. She met and married her soulmate and love of her life, Russell Brooks. They enjoyed landscaping and traveling and raised a number of critters, including a ferret, cats, squirrel and a timber wolf. They also raised 2 Akitas and 2 Great Pyrenees. Their fairytale romance lasted for 41 years until Russell's death in 2010.

Cheri was loving, thoughtful and generous and had a great sense of humor. She was also a strong woman who knew her own mind. She was a wonderful wife who adored her husband and a wonderful mother. Her family and the people who knew her appreciated her wit and her caring and compassionate spirit. She was also very artistic. One of her interests was photography and she took many well-received photographs of birds and flowers. She also had a green thumb and a house full of plants of all sizes and kinds.

She is survived by her children. Cheri (Ceara) & Michael Nourse, Neal & Cheryl Smith, and her step-children Linda & Erwin Stinnett and Caroline Kueneman & Bruce Burgland, and several grandchildren, great-grandchildren and a great-great grandson.

For the past year Cheri was on hospice and was lovingly cared for by Terese Sackos and the compassionate caregivers at Ivy Place and Amber Lane. They have our heartfelt gratitude.

Private internment at Cloverdale Cemetery.