August 03, 2002
RIP, Geneva Kirk Brooks

Local anti-smut crusader Geneva Kirk Brooks died yesterday after a bout with lymphoma. Normally, when I link to an obituary, it's because I liked or was impressed by the deceased. That's not the case here, though I will say in Ms. Brooks' defense that she was one of the more entertaining professional puritans around.

For example, about ten years ago she got a bee in her bonnet about Hippie Hollow, the nudist park on Lake Travis in Austin. She put pressure on then-Governor Ann Richards to ban nude sunbathing there, claiming that some of the nudists were visible from a nearby church parking lot. As you can see from these photos, Lake Travis is essentially a canyon, surrounded by trees. When asked how exactly it was that she could see anyone at all on Lake Travis from her perch in the church's parking lot, Brooks said "Well, I was using binoculars." Governor Richards declined to take action.

So, if there is a heaven and Geneva Kirk Brooks gets there, I can only hope for her sake that all the cherubs are decently dressed.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on August 03, 2002 to Elsewhere in Houston
Comments

Or that the demons are at least wearing their loincloths and have the polished-brass tines on their pitchforks for special guests.

Posted by: Laurence Simon on August 3, 2002 4:50 PM

I have it on good authority( Geneva Kirk's father, my grandfather) that all cherubs in heaven are thoroughly dressed. This was a topic of hot and ardent debate in his home in Waco, along with how the Catholics threw the Christians to the lions. Has anyone in Texas got wind of the contested will? the one presented by her detested ex-husband and signed on her death bed?

Posted by: ru kirk on July 1, 2003 11:53 PM