The first black woman in the USA to host her own TV show.
In 1941, she married Earl "Shug" Morrison, who played for the Harlem
Globetrotters. But Morrison died of pneumonia within a year, and Brooks
never remarried.
Lived in Australia, Europe and Hawaii before returning to Los Angeles.
At age 4, she begged her parents - her mother was a doctor, her father
a deputy sheriff - for piano lessons. She later studied classical
music.