James and Claudia Brooks

James and Claudia Brooks will be celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary on June 17, 2009. Claudia Weaver and James Brooks were married in Ardmore, Oklahoma on June 17, 1944.  James was in the Air Force and left to go overseas about 10 days after they were married. His plane was shot down on their 29th mission and he was a prisoner of war for the next six months. He has written a book about his time in the P.O.W. camp titled “A Glimpse of Hell, The World War Two Years”. James retired from Clemons Coal Co. after working there over 35 years. The couple resides at 2510 Omaha, Pittsburg. The couple have two children, Dr. Kenneth Brooks, an optometrist in Pittsburg and Dr. Nancy Brooks, a Professor of Education at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Kenneth and wife, Donna, have two sons, Thomas and Dustin, who are Doctors of Optometry. Thomas and wife, Stacey, have twin daughters and Dustin and wife, Tiffany, have one daughter. Nancy’s son, Gary, is a program director for a Christian Radio station in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has won national awards for his production work.  He and his wife, Amy, have two daughters and one son. Nancy’s daughter, Corissa, and husband, Mike, live in Lisle, Illinois, where he works as an electrical engineer. Corissa and Mike both are graduates of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. They have two boys. So with eight great-grandchildren and another on the way, you can see what James and Claudia’s life is centered around.