It is with grieving hearts that we announce the passing of Catherine Lynn Brooks on March 6, at age 81, from complications related to cancer. Cathy was a lively, intelligent woman with an independent streak, who loved to laugh and made friends everywhere she went. Those who knew her well also knew she had strong opinions, was fiercely loyal, and had a temper you didn't want to mess with.

Born Katherine Pearl Proctor on September 17, 1943, in Youngstown, Ohio, Cathy was always sure the 'K' was an error. However, the "Pearl" she just didn't like, so when she was ten years old, she started telling everyone her middle name was "Lynn," a change she stuck with for the rest of her life. We're still not sure it was legal. By the time Cathy was in high school, her mother had remarried, and Cathy used her stepfather's last name, Hefner. Then, in 1967, Cathy married Ed Brooks, and took his last name.

An only child, Cathy spent her childhood in a house with four generations of women, including her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. Because Mr. Hefner was in the Air Force, Cathy went to seven different high schools before landing at Lompoc High School for her senior year where she was a cheerleader, was on the school newspaper, ran for Flower Festival Queen, and was voted Prom queen, the announcement of which was when she met Ed, who was Prom king. She graduated from LHS in 1961, then attended Allan Hancock College, where she worked on the school paper and interviewed Rafer Johnson (Olympic Champion) and astronauts visiting Vandenberg AFB, was a cheerleader and was on the Homecoming Court. Cathy and future Three Dog Night member, Chuck Negron, sang a duet, "Chestnut Roasting on an Open Fire," during the Christmas Program, and she gave a bit of grief to her teacher, future Hall of Fame Coach John Madden, in his Health Class before transferring to San Jose State, where she earned her teaching credential.

Though she loved teaching, it was not her only career. In the 1980s, she got her real estate license and worked as a Realtor in Lompoc until the late 2000s. Then she switched again, putting her eye for home decor and her love of garage and estate sales to use by doing what she called "up-cycling": taking items from estate sales, fixing them up, and reselling them. This was how she met her loving partner, Rusty Decker.

Cathy loved her family, her friends, and her pets. She liked to have fun, go out and spend time with friends dancing, singing karaoke, and winning money at trivia night and Monday night football. She was an avid reader and loved movies—she especially liked books and movies about people surviving disasters.

Cathy is survived by her daughter, Amanda (John); son, Casey (Angela); granddaughters Sydney, Alex, and Arwen; and her partner of fourteen years, Rusty Decker.

Services will be held at the Lompoc Cemetery, at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 29. Reception to follow at noon at Schuyler River Bottom Ranch, 1330 E. Barton Ave.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Cathy's honor to your local animal shelter.