Obituary of Geneva Brookman

Tracy City, Tennessee - Mrs. Geneva Brookman, a Tracy City native of 94 years, passed away at Sewanee Medical Center on Dec. 15. 2022. The funeral will be at 1:00 p.m. CST Sunday December 18, 2022, at Cumberland Funeral Home in Monteagle, Tenn. Visitation will be held on Saturday evening from 3:00 PM – 8:00 PM. Mrs. Brookman taught second grade at Monteagle Elementary School for 46 years before retiring in the early 1980s. She was a reading specialist who touched the lives of thousands of children during her tenure at Monteagle Elementary. Mrs. Brookman received her bachelor’s from Middle Tennessee State University in Elementary Education. She got her Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction and Administration and Supervision also from M.T.S.U. She received her E.D.S. From M.T.S.U. as a Reading Specialist. The great passion of Mrs. Brookmans life was her participation in the Order of the Eastern Star. She served as Grand Electa in the Grand Chapter O.E.S. of Tennessee beginning in 1993, and she served many offices in the local Jasper Chapter #124 for several years before and afterward. She also served as representative to other states and on various O.E.S. State committees. Mrs. Brookman was a member of First United Methodist Church in Tracy City, TN, and attended regularly until the Pandemic. An avid golfer, she played regularly into her sixties and seventies and was fond of many of the courses in the Sequatchie Valley and Nashville areas. She is survived by her daughter, Erma Layne, and her grandson, Marshall Layne, of Jasper, her sister, Nellie Tabor, of Ohio, several nieces and nephews and her students. She was preceded in death by her husband, Marshall Brookman, her father, Walter Kilgore, her mother, Katie Kilgore, her brother, Farris Kilgore, her sister, Lucille Hall, her brother, Joe Kilgore, her sister, Mabel Garrett, her sister, Betty Speegle, her sister, Joyce Atchley, her brother, Walter Edward Kilgore, and her brother, Orin Winford Kilgore. Mrs. Brookman often spoke fondly of her time teaching, and she said, “I loved every student I had in class, and I hope every parent felt like I did what I needed to do for their child. I tried to treat every child like I wanted my child treated. Arrangements by Layne Funeral Home, Palmer, Tennessee.