Brooks Taber Cathcart

Brooks Taber Cathcart was born on March 3, 1945 in Columbia, SC, to Mary Belle Taber and William Brooks Stuckey. She was lovingly named Julia Brooks Taber Stuckey, after her aunt, Julia Mood Peterkin, her father and her mother. However when she later married, rules required that she drop the Julia and the Stuckey on account of one lady should not have ‘so many names’ on her social security card, and she elegantly moved through the rest of her life as Brooks Taber Cathcart. Or, as many affectionately knew her, ‘Brooksie’, ‘Aunt Brooks’ and our beloved, ‘Nana’.

Brooks spent her early years at Fox Hill, a magical corner of her family farm, Lang Syne, in Fort Motte, SC, where her cousins were like siblings and her playground consisted of live oaks and horses. Her childhood summers were often spent in Murrell’s Inlet with her cousins, swimming, crabbing, swinging and just sitting on the dock, absorbing the art of story-telling from her many aunts and uncles, a gift she thoroughly enjoyed sharing with her own nieces and nephews, children and grandchildren, whenever the opportunity arose, happiest, of course, doing so with a grand baby on her lap and a cup of coffee nearby.

When Brooks was nearing school age her parents, always keen to provide their only daughter with the best possible opportunities, relocated to Columbia, SC so that she could attend AC Moore elementary school. There she took great delight in the many new friends, unending supply of library books and covert trading of candy on the playground, three loves that would remain true for the whole of her life. Once of high school age, Brooks attended boarding school at Ashley Hall, in Charleston, SC, where she discovered her passion for English, reading, writing, and her favorite of all, chatting, nurtured her love of the low country and formed cherished friendships that would last her lifetime. Brooks went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of South Carolina, and later completed the majority of course work for a Master’s degree in early childhood education before ‘retiring’ from academics to raise her small children.

A lifelong lover of all things beautiful, Brooks found her ‘heart’ home in Paris while spending college summers in France with her Aunt Margaret. The influence remained with her always, emerging in her flair for decoration and fashion, the many beautiful impressionist paintings she created, her true love of Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald and all of the Left Bank expats, and of course, her ability to make a perfect quiche. She was overjoyed to learn her eldest granddaughter would be attending college in Paris this fall, and was looking so very forward to revisiting the city with her family and seeing Paris through their eyes.

Upon graduation from USC, Brooks packed up her newly minted English degree and donned her signature pumps and moved to New York City to take on an editorial position at Newsweek magazine. While she thrived on the energy and stimulation the city had to offer in comparison to her home, it wasn’t very long before her heart was stolen by a hazel-eyed Citadel cadet and her soul was drawn back to South Carolina, where she embarked on the journey that would become her greatest joy and legacy: her children and grandchildren.

Brooks spent her adult years juggling life and children, and during that time enjoyed many career endeavors, all characteristically centered on human connection and relationship. The career she was most passionate about and known for was her career in counseling families and individuals through addiction and recovery, a fitting and meaningful tribute to her own life and love of family, and a legacy of which she and her children were and are very proud.

Brooks was a brilliant, beautiful, wise and passionate person whose big brown eyes, bright smile and characteristic ‘hey, darling’ lit up every room and warmed every heart lucky enough to be with her. She was an accomplished and talented painter in her own right, and a voracious reader and connoisseur of movies. She loved, almost more than anything, sharing her paintings, a meaningful quote or anecdote from her latest book, or her recommendation of a recently watched (or re-watched) medieval Netflix drama. But by far her favorite moments, it seemed, were the ones spent on the porch in Little Switzerland sharing love and laughter with her dear friends, children, nieces and nephews, in-laws and of course, her greatest loves, her grandchildren.

Brooks never missed an opportunity to express her pride and adoration of her three children, and specifically of the parents they had all themselves become: Brooks Taber Cathcart, Edmund Heyward Cathcart, Jr (Kathryn) and Charles Dwight Cathcart II (Neely). Brooks was lovingly known as ‘Nana’ to her true pride and joy and the nourishment of her soul, her eight grandchildren: William Wallace Bruner IV, Jones Boykin Bruner, Mary Brooks Taber Bruner, Taber Jane Cathcart, Lucille “Lucie” Heyward Cathcart, Emma Heyward Cathcart, Brooks Neely Cathcart and Thomas Harold “Huck” Cathcart. The fact that each of Brooks’ three children named one of their own children after her is a truly befitting legacy.

Brooks’ beautiful and creative life will be honored in Columbia with a memorial service at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 1100 Sumter Street, on Thursday, July 13th at 1:30 p.m., followed by a celebration with family and friends at the home of Heyward and Kathryn Cathcart from 4:00 until 7:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made to the Columbia Conservatory of Dance, 1545 Main Street, Columbia, SC 29201, in honor of Brooks, to fund a scholarship for young dancers in need.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.dunbarfuneralhomedevine.com for the Cathcart family.