Brooks Reid Brown died unexpectedly at her home in Kalmia Landing in Aiken, South Carolina, on May 17.
Brooks Reid Brown was born in Maricopa County, Arizona, on January 9, 1951, to Alston Law Brown and Jean (Jorgensen) Brown, who were stationed at Williams Air Force Base, where Al was attending Jet Fighter Training as a career officer in the U.S. Air Force.
In 1961, her widowed mother moved Brooks and her three sisters to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, where they attended Antilles School. After graduating in 1969, Brooks attended Temple Buell College in Denver, Colorado, and then completed her pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at The Art Institute in San Francisco. Returning to St. Thomas in 1976, Brooks worked at the family business, Tropic Tours, where she became the manager and eventually President of the company.
Brooks loved the Virgin Islands and those that live there, and as a true ambassador of them, helped establish Tropic Tours as one of the leading Destination Management Companies in the Caribbean. Brooks always followed her passion in art, displaying her creations at local galleries and at Art Festivals in St. Thomas. She created art in a number of mediums, not limited to watercolor, pen and ink, photography and Artography.
In 2018, upon her retirement, Brooks decided to move to Aiken, South Carolina, to be closer to her long-time friends Jane Kilgour and Peggy Blackman and to pursue her love of art, people, and horses. She was known for her stunning landscapes and her photographs of horses. Brooks was a member of the Aiken Artist Guild and participated in gallery showings in Aiken, and her art has been featured in a number of shows at the Aiken Center for the Arts. Brooks was also a beloved member of the Ancient Antilleans comprised of noted individuals who graduated from Antilles School’s Class of 1969.
She died unexpectedly at her home in Kalmia Landing in Aiken on May 17, 2024.
She is pre-deceased by her father, Alston Law Brown, her mother, Jean Jorgensen Brown Hendricks, and her stepfather, Jens Glendon Hendricks. She is survived by her sisters, Derryle and her husband David Berger, Tracy Brown and her husband Tom Wiggins, and Courtney Gabrielson and her son Egon, his wife Beth and their two children, daughter Charlie and son Bodhi Gabrielson. Brooks, who loved meeting new people and hearing their stories, will be missed by her family, innumerable friends, colleagues and worldwide acquaintances for her bright, cheerful personality and her limitless joie de vivre.
Celebrations of Brooks’ life to be held in Aiken, South Carolina, and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, will be announced in the near future.
