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Daniel Sawyer talks about his longtime friend Wallace Brooks, for whom the park is named.
There is a story behind almost everything, and our Wallace Brooks Park is no exception. Read more about the man from which the park bears his name in an article reprinted with permission by Cathy Kapulka of the Inverness Pioneer:
Who Was Wallace Brooks?
By Cathy Kapulka
As Daniel Sawyer stands in Wallace Brooks Park, he reminisces about his good friend, Wallace Brooks, who the park was named after. Sawyer has lived in Inverness since 1933 after moving from Red Level at the age of 2.
“He was the oldest black citizen in the City of Inverness at the time,” Daniel Sawyer, an Inverness resident since 1933, said about Wallace Brooks who was a longtime friend.
Sawyer said Wallace Brooks Park was named after his pal for that reason.
The park was dedicated on May 21, 1968 and was designated as a segregated park for African/Americans.
Sawyer said that Brooks frequently walked on the Inverness railroad tracks, which is now part of the Withlacoochee State Trail and that he worked for the Inverness rail company, Atlantic Coast Line Railway Company.
“He did a lot of walking,” Sawyer said. “He used to walk all over town. He walked around every day with a burlap sac on his back. I don’t know what was in it.”
Sawyer said that Brooks was an average man, short in stature.
“I knew him very well, I mean good,” Sawyer said. “He was a mild mannered man.”
Sawyer said that he didn’t know of any photos of Brooks.
“During that time cameras weren’t flying around like they are now,” Sawyer added.
Sawyer said that Brooks lived in Lincoln Park off of S.R. 44 in Inverness with his wife Mary. Sawyer added that Brooks died sometime in the early 1970s and is buried in Pine Hill Cemetery.
According to Kathy Turner Thompson, the Citrus County Historical Society has no records of Brooks being buried in Pine Hill Cemetery, but she said there are a number of unmarked graves in the graveyard and it is very possible he is there.
According to Citrus County records Mary E. Brooks was born on July 26, 1889 and died on July 15, 1960.
Thompson said that in the historical society’s cemetery headstone listing for Pine Hill, Mary Brooks is listed and Wallace Brooks may well be buried with her and without a headstone.
Luther Cason, owner of Cason Funeral & Cremation Services in Inverness, bought Dampier Street Funeral home from Eli White in 1987. White handled most of the African American burials in Inverness. He said it was very possible that White handled Brooks’ death but since records had been destroyed prior to him taking over he never received them.
“Most of the time they (deceased) are buried with their families,” Cason said. “But there’s just no record.”
A search conducted at the Florida Department of Health’s Office of Vital Statistics showed no death records for the dates that Brooks was thought to have died sometime between 1970 and 1975. It is possible that he died out of state.
According to a 1935 Citrus County census Brooks was born in Florida and was 52 years old and was married to Mary Brooks who was born in Georgia. Brooks had a fourth-grade education and Mary had a seventh-grade education. He was a laborer and she was a housewife. A 1945 Citrus County census stated that both Brooks and Mary had third-grade educations. Mary’s age was inconsistent.
If the census is correct that would put Brooks around the age of 85 at the time the park was dedicated to him.
After a comprehensive search through Citrus County records no other records were found to document Brooks’ life.
A 1910 Pasco County census lists Brooks as lodger and a laborer at a sawmill.
In 1917, according to the Polk County registrar, he was born on Dec. 1, 1882 and was a mill laborer at the Lake Wales Lumber Company.
A 1920 Pasco County census is vague, but also includes Brooks.