Press Release, Office of the White House Press Secretary
April 23, 1974
The President today announced his intention to nominate Mary T. Brooks, of Carey, Idaho, for reappointment as Director of the Mint, Department of the Treasury, for a term of five years.
Mrs. Brooks has served as Director of the Mint since September 1, 1969. From 1965 until her appointment in 1969, she served as Assistant Chairman of the Republican National Committee and as an Idaho State Senator, having been elected in 1964 and reelected in 1966 and 1968. In the Idaho Senate she served as Chairman of the Republican Caucus and the State Affairs Committee.
She was born in Colby, Kansas, and was raised in Gooding, Idaho. Mrs. Brooks attended Mills College and received her B.A. degree from the University of Idaho. She is the daughter of former Senator John Thomas of Idaho and served as his Administrative Assistant prior to his death in 1945. She also worked in her family’s banking chain before its sale to First Security Corporation and has managed and developed a sheep and cattle ranch in Muldoon, Idaho.
From 1957 to 1963 she served as a member of the Republican National Committee and was elected Vice Chairman in 1960. In 1963 she returned to Idaho to manage her ranch until her election to the Idaho Senate.
Mrs. Brooks has a son and a daughter by her marriage to Arthur J. Peavey, Jr., who died in a hunting accident in 1941. In 1946 she was married to Senator C. Wayland Brooks of Illinois. Following his death in 1957, when he was a member of the Republican National Committee, Mrs. Brooks became a member of the RNC.