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Sierra Kondos

Special to the News

“I always knew growing up that he was very powerful,” Kate Brooks-Carroll said about her father, Jack Brooks, a former Texas Congressman. 

Growing up with one foot in the world of politics and the other in a private, normal life, Brooks-Carroll said her father taught his children the importance of self-sufficiency, forgiveness, compromise, and personal connections in politics and, most importantly, in their lives. 

Jack Brooks is an integral figure of Southeast Texas history who instituted many changes from the construction of the Port Arthur seawall to successfully push through legislation making Lamar Junior College a four-year college as Lamar University in 1949, just to name a few.

 But to Kate, he was just dad.

“I don’t think I truly realized the impact he had until we moved back here,” she said. “I would run into people who’d be like, “Thank your dad so much for building the sea wall, if not, this storm would have flooded Port Arthur.”

At home, he taught lessons in self-sufficiency.

“There was never the question of ‘Are you going to,’” she said. “In regard to attending college, it was never, ‘Do you want to go,’ it was, ‘Where are you going to attend,’ and ‘You will be successful in this endeavor.’ He would also drive me to some random area and then made me find our way back home. I have a good sense of direction because of that.”

Kate had a job at 12 -years-old working for her father during the summer.

“I would go on summer breaks and retype the labels for the congressional year,” she said. “I would have to pull every file out of the filing cabinet and type that label with the next congressional legislative year on it. I did that for a couple of summers, we would go and pull mail, which to me was it was horrible, like so essentially, when I said pull mail, he would have a letter, notes his office would put together, and then his response. He would sign his response, and as soon as he signed it, I would try to grab it and flip it over.”

The sooner Kate got through all the mail, she could go and play.

“But he would always slap my hands and be like, ‘stop,’” she said. “He wanted to read what they said, read his response, even though somebody in his staff did it so he would know if he ran into you and would be able to say, ‘Yes, I got your letter.” He had an innate ability to remember names and facts and things and had photographic memory. Although he wanted everyone to wear name tags, he would know you, your parents’ names, their brothers and sisters, your dog fluffy from 20 years ago.”

That’s how he cultivated relationships successfully and taught his children to do the same.

Kate said he did things very quietly and very just under the radar.

 “He understood the art of compromise and reaching across the aisle and getting things done,” she said. “And you don’t see that anymore. You see the ones that are thumping their chest on the right and the left on both sides. Just look at me. Look at me and don’t say anything. And yet, it’s the people in the middle that are getting the work done. You’re never going to hear their names unless they get out there, because those who truly want to do it for the right reason are truly there because they care about their district. And that’s the way dad was.”

Kate Brooks-Carroll takes her life lessons from her father and utilizes them on one foot in her private, normal life and the other planted as Jefferson County Tax Assessor Collector.