History









Jane Brooks School opened its doors for the first time in little yellow school house located in Purcell, Oklahoma on June 1, 1929. The great depression would soon blow into Oklahoma on the winds of the Dust Bowl, but the school, led by Margaret Brooks endured and grew.

Mrs. Brooks inspired by her daughter Jane's physical handicap and the lack of educational opportunity available to her, travel to St. Louis to study at St. Joseph School.

She became a pioneer in deaf education,developing teacher education, limits on class size and . . . Mainstreaming, beginning in 1932.

Sometime between 1931 to 1933, Ms. Edna Spencer came from Connecticut to teach at the school. In 1933, Mrs. Brooks moved the school to the family farm north of Purcell, Oklahoma. In 1953, the school moved to Oklahoma College for Women in Chickasha, Oklahoma.

Mrs. Brooks was not only a teacher, but also a housemother, nurse, chauffeur, protector, and second mother to us in school in the early years.

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