Jessica Langdon/Times Record News

Randall Brooks taught himself to play the guitar by ear. When the
left-handed little boy got his first guitar from his daddy, he played it
upside-down.

He performed for other kids in his Clay County neighborhood.
As he grew up, his musical gifts grew, and so did his love for George Jones.
He always had to play a George Jones hit before he put down his guitar. He
performed at clubs in Wichita Falls.

His mother, Tommie Jean Brooks, even sang with him sometimes.
His songs and outgoing spirit filled her mind Monday, the day after
42-year-old Randall Brooks died of a gunshot wound.

His family finds comfort knowing a part of him will live in others. His
organs will be donated.

Brooks suffered a single gunshot wound to the head Saturday, police said.
Brooks' family said he and the woman accused of shooting him had lived
together for more than a decade.

Officers responded to 1614 Andrews Drive in east Wichita Falls about 6 p.m.
Saturday and found Brooks wounded in a house.

Marian Manley, 57, was charged with aggravated assault in connection with
the shooting. She was free from the Wichita County Jail Monday on $50,000
bond.

The arrest affidavit gave this description of the incident:
A 911 call came in concerning a shooting. When officers arrived at the home
on Andrews Drive, a woman told them she had shot Randall Brooks.
The woman was taken to the Wichita Falls Police Department for an interview,
during which she told officers "she had shot Randall Brooks because he was
being physically abusive to her," the affidavit said.

Brooks was taken to United Regional Health Care System's 11th Street campus
and spent hours in critical condition in intensive care.

Tommie Jean Brooks got the call Saturday night, saying her youngest son was
hurt."His last brain wave left him Sunday morning," she said. "They took him off
life support."

His death came just a few months after one of his brothers died.
Family and friends gathered Monday to remember Randall Brooks, who was the
youngest of seven. His mother used to tell him the seventh child was the
lucky one.

"He was a very cheerful boy. He was an outgoing person," she said. "I just
really hate that this happened to him at such a young age."
The family also found something to lift their spirits. Tommie Jean Brooks
told the Southwest Transplant Alliance to take any of her son's organs that
could be used.

"At this time we believe that his liver is going to be put into a
52-year-old male," said Pam Silvestri, community education director for the
Southwest Transplant Alliance. She said both of his kidneys could also be
donated, and one would go to either a 53-year-old woman or a 33-year-old
woman.

There are close to 90,000 people nationwide waiting for organs, she said,
and 6,000 of those are in Texas. She praised Tommie Jean Brooks for thinking
of them during a time of tremendous loss for her own family.
"That's incredible," Silvestri said.

Brooks said she was proud to do it, and she knows it's what her son would
have wanted. "I feel great," Brooks said Monday. "I feel like shouting."