C. Wayland Brooks

{{about|the United States Senator|other people named Charles Brooks|Charles Brooks (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|image = C. Wayland Brooks 1940.jpg

|caption = Brooks at the 1940 Republican National Convention

|jr/sr = United States Senator

|state = Illinois

|term_start = November 22, 1940

|term_end = January 3, 1949

|predecessor = James M. Slattery

|successor = Paul Douglas

|birth_name = Charles Wayland Brooks

|birth_date = {{birth date|1897|3|8|mf=y}}

|birth_place = West Bureau, Illinois, U.S.

|death_date = {{death date and age|1957|1|14|1897|3|8|mf=y}}

|death_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

|party = Republican

|spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|Gertrude Ackerly|1920|1943|end=divorced}}
{{marriage|Mary E. Thomas Peavey|1946|1957}}

}}

|children = 1

|profession =

|signature =

|allegiance = United States

|branch = {{flag|United States Marine Corps|1914}}

|serviceyears = 1917–1919

|rank = First lieutenant

|battles = World War I

}}

Charles Wayland Brooks (March 8, 1897 – January 14, 1957) was a Republican U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1940 to 1949.{{Cite web|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000874|title = Bioguide Search}}

Early life

Born in West Bureau, Illinois, Brooks served in the Marines during World War I as a first lieutenant from 1917 to 1919. While in combat he was wounded several times.

Political career

Brooks ran for Governor of Illinois in 1936 but was defeated by incumbent Democrat Henry Horner. He was elected by a very narrow margin in 1940 to fill the senate vacancy caused by the death of J. Hamilton Lewis.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bjJIAAAAIBAJ&pg=6524%2C5290769 |newspaper=Daily Kentucky New Era |location=Hopkinsville |title=Brooks sworn in as new Illinois senator |agency=(NEA photo)|date=November 23, 1940 |page=6}} Brooks was reelected in 1942,{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=U90iAAAAIBAJ&pg=5179%2C4325741 |newspaper=Toledo Blade |location=Ohio |agency=INS |title=Illinois returns Senator Brooks |date=November 4, 1942 |page=1}} but was defeated in 1948 by Democrat Paul Douglas.

= Visit to Buchenwald Concentration Camp =

On 11 April 1945, United States forces liberated the Buchenwald Concentration Camp which was established in 1937 and caused the death of at least 56,545 people. General Eisenhower left rotting corpses unburied so a visiting group of US legislators could truly understand the horror of the atrocities. This group was visiting Buchenwald to inspect the camp and learn firsthand about the enormity of the Nazi Final Solution and treatment of other prisoners.

The legislators who visited included Alben W. Barkley, Ed Izac, John M. Vorys, Dewey Short, C. Wayland Brooks, and Kenneth S. Wherry along with General Omar N. Bradley and journalists Joseph Pulitzer, Norman Chandler, William I. Nichols and Julius Ochs Adler.{{Cite web|url=https://www.scrapbookpages.com/Buchenwald/Liberation5.html|title=American Congressmen and reporters visit Buchenwald, April 24, 1945|website=www.scrapbookpages.com|access-date=2019-09-13|archive-date=2020-11-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201118003856/http://www.scrapbookpages.com/buchenwald/Liberation5.html|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1056547|title=American congressmen view the open ovens in the Buchenwald crematorium. - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|website=collections.ushmm.org|access-date=2019-09-13}}

Death

Brooks returned to Chicago and died at age 59 at Passavant Hospital in early 1957, after a massive heart attack.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=swUdAAAAIBAJ&pg=6335%2C1115999 |newspaper=Sarasota Journal |location=Florida |agency=Associated Press |title=Ex-Illinois senator dies in hospital |date=January 14, 1957 |page=9}}

Family

Brooks married Gertrude Ackerly in August 1920 and they had a son, Russell (b. 1924). She divorced him in April 1943 in Reno, Nevada, citing cruelty.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FwkeAAAAIBAJ&pg=2947,1729256|newspaper=Pittsburgh Press|title=Wife divorces Senator|date=April 10, 1943 |page=1}}{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,884892,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214173032/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,884892,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 14, 2008|magazine=Time |title=Milestones|date=April 1943|access-date=October 21, 2012}} He married Mary Elizabeth Thomas Peavey, a widow and daughter of U.S. Senate colleague John Thomas of Idaho. They wed in May 1946,{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WMAwAAAAIBAJ&pg=3059%2C4529761 |newspaper=St. Petersburg Times |location=Florida |agency=INS |title=Illinois senator to wed May 8 |date=April 28, 1946 |page=10 }} and remained married to his death. Mary Brooks later became a member of the Idaho Senate.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=M9lYAAAAIBAJ&pg=6038%2C743037 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |location=Washington |last=Connor |first=Harriet J.|title=State Senator is chairman |date=January 3, 1969 |page=8 }} and for eight years was Director of the United States Mint during the Nixon and Ford administrations. Her son, John Peavey (b. 1933), is a former Democratic politician in Idaho, formerly a Republican.