15 Facts About Mary Brooks

Mary Elizabeth Thomas Peavey Brooks was an American politician.

Mary Brooks directed the United States Mint from September 1969 to February 1977.

Mary Brooks's parents moved to Gooding, Idaho, in early 1909 when she was 14 months of age.

Mary Brooks's father was a rancher and banker; he was appointed a US Senator from Idaho twice.

Mary Brooks transferred to the University of Idaho in Moscow in 1927, where she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, and received her bachelor's degree in economics in 1929.

Mary Brooks met her first husband, Arthur Jacob "Art" Peavey, Jr.

Mary Brooks was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity and graduated in 1929.

Mary Brooks drowned in a boating accident on the Snake River in 1941 and wasn't found for ten days, which left her a widow in her early thirties with two young children.

Mary Brooks's second husband, C Wayland "Curly" Brooks, was a US Senator from Illinois.

Mary Brooks took over her father's Idaho sheep ranch after his death in 1945 and ran it until her son took it over in 1961.

Mary Brooks was elected to the Idaho State Senate in 1964, and served until 1969, when she was named to head the US Mint by President Nixon in September.

Mary Brooks oversaw the first production of the Eisenhower dollar coin, as well as the design of the Bicentennial quarter, half dollar, and dollar coins for the United States Bicentennial.

Mary Brooks is credited with saving the original San Francisco Mint building, known as the "Granite Lady," by transferring it to the Treasury Department.

Mary Brooks received the "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" Award in 1974 from the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau for her preservation efforts.

Mary Brooks was inducted into the University of Idaho Alumni Association's Hall of Fame in 1970.