Ida Joe Brooks

Ida Josephine "Joe" Brooks (April 28, 1853 – March 13, 1939) was an educator, physician and surgeon. She was among Arkansas's earliest women physicians and the first female faculty member at the University of Arkansas Medical School.

Early life Ida Josephine Brooks was born in Muscatine, Iowa, on April 28, 1853. She was the daughter of Rev. Joseph Brooks, a Methodist minister, and Elizabeth Goodenough. Her father was the governor candidate for Arkansas in 1872, against Elisha Baxter, who in the end was the winner. When she was very young, her parents moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and she there entered the public schools, beginning in the primary department of the Clay school, when Dr. William Torrey Harris began his career as a teacher. She graduated from Central High School in St. Louis in 1870. Her father moved to the South after Civil War, and Brooks went to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1870.

In 1914, Brooks joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the first female faculty member. She was a lecturer on social hygiene in the psychiatry department and later became associate professor of psychiatry.

She was nominated to the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1920, but at the time women couldn't compete and her name was taken off the ballot.

She was member of the Altrusa Club and the Woman's City Club of Little Rock.

Personal life Brooks tried to enlist in the military service during World War I, but was rejected because she was a woman. She obtained a commission in the United States Public Health Service and served at Camp Pike.

She died on March 13, 1939, and is buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis.