b. October 28, 1924 Globe, Arizona
d. April 28, 2009 Arizona
She attended grammar school and had just started junior high school when the Old Dominion Mine in Globe closed and her father was hired to work at a mine near Duncan. Rose, her three brothers and one sister and mother moved to Duncan, and when that mine closed two years later in 1939, the Wearne Family moved to Patagonia where her father found work at the Trench Mine.
As a freshman at Patagonia Union High School Rose met Stayton Brooks who was seven years older and who was raised on a homestead in Sonoita. Stayton's experience had been very different from Rose's: beef and dairy cattle, horses, farming and country life, a real change for a miner's daughter who had lived in the "big cities" of Globe and Duncan. When Rose was a senior in high school, Stayton gave her his class ring. When she graduated high school in 1942, Rose went to work as a waitress at a small restaurant in Patagonia; Stayton was working for the U.S. Forest Service as a lookout on Mount Baldy in the Santa Rita Mountains. On June 28, 1942 Rose made her usual walk to the Patagonia Ranger Station to call Stayton on the Forest Service telephone line. Stayton asked her if she would like to come up on Baldy and be his cook. Rose said "yes" and didn't tell him that she couldn't cook... Stayton said, "Meet me in Nogales tomorrow and we'll get married"; Judge Gordon Farley married them at the old Nogales Courthouse on June 29, 1942. They spent the night in Madera Canyon, and the next day they rode to the top of Baldy where they remained until fire season was over in August. Rose remembered "Pinky the mule" as their honeymoon transportation. Over the next few years, Rose and Stayton lived and worked on several ranches: the Hacienda Los Encinos at Sonoita, the Crown C Ranch near Sonoita and the Andrada Ranch near Vail, but Patagonia was always home for them. Their son Bill was born in Nogales in 1946 and their daughter Linda was born in 1948 also in Nogales. They decided to stop moving around and to raise their family in Patagonia. Stayton started a construction and repair business, and Rose went to work for Civil Service, first for the U. S. Army in Ft. Huachuca in the Classified Documents Division and then for the Forest Service in Patagonia where she worked for the next 15 years. When the Coronado Forest Service District Office was moved to Sierra Vista, Rose moved to U. S. Customs in Nogales and retired in 1984. In 1979 Rose and Stayton purchased property between Patagonia and Sonoita where they could build a new house and raise a few head of cattle and live in the country they loved so much. They called their home the Crittenden Ranch (after the historical Fort Crittenden). The Brooks brand was handed down to their eldest grandson, Will Brooks. Over the years they were active in the community and belonged to the Santa Cruz County 4-H Programs and were Lifetime Members of the Santa Cruz County Fair and Rodeo Association. Rose was part of the Elgin Community Club, and the Tucson Cowbelles, Arizona State Cowbelles and American National CattleWomen.
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SCS 8/12/2024