Charles Wayland Brooks

Republican Senator of Illinois

Congresses Served

Senate Terms

January 1, 1897 (60 years old)

Birthday

January 1, 1957

Death

Served as a Republican U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1940 to 1949
Served in the Marines during World War I as a first lieutenant from 1917 to 1919 and was wounded several times in combat
Ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Illinois in 1936
Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1940 to fill a vacancy, reelected in 1942, but defeated in 1948
Was part of a group of US legislators who visited the liberated Buchenwald Concentration Camp in 1945
Died at age 59 in Chicago after a massive heart attack
Married twice, first to Gertrude Ackerly with whom he had a son, and after their divorce, to Mary Elizabeth Thomas Peavey, a widow and daughter of a U.S. Senate colleague
His second wife, Mary Brooks, later became a member of the Idaho Senate and served as Director of the United States Mint during the Nixon and Ford administrations