Children of Garth and Edna - Brooks

Brooks Hazelton Beckington, son #3 of Garth and Edna's children was born on December 16, 1909 in Willis, Michigan in Washtenaw County. This means that Garth and Edna made the move to Michigan sometime after August, 1908, when Carlos was born and before Brooks' birth. Brooks is named after his great-grandfather, Brooks Bowman Hazelton.

Brooks graduated from Lincoln High School and married Irene Marjorie Merritt (born October 26, 1912 in Belleville, Michigan) in April, 1930 in Angola, Indiana. Angola is what is called a "gretna green" - which basically means a "marriages transacted in a jurisdiction that was not the residence of the parties being married, to avoid restrictions or procedures imposed by the parties' home jurisdiction." The name comes from a famous town in Scotland named Gretna Green, which became popular in the 1700s. In the United States, other gretna green towns which have become famous are: Elkton, Maryland, Las Vegas and Reno. I don't know if Angola is still used for that purpose. Brooks's sister, Margaret, also married there a couple of years later. It was mostly a place with no waiting period and an inexpensive way to marry back then.

Brooks and Irene had two children. A girl and then a boy. They spent their married life in a house in Belleville, Michigan. Brooks was an electrician and had a radio and tv repair shop out of his garage. Irene died on September 28, 1979 of heart failure. Brooks died on March 7, 1990 of brain cancer. They are both buried in the Flat Rock Memorial Park Cemetery, Flat Rock, Michigan in the Merritt family plot.