Brooks was born in Manhattan and attended the High School of Music and Art, studying dance with Martha Graham.
"[5] With the Opera Society of Washington, she performed the finale to Act I of Mozart's The Magic Flute at a White House state dinner during the Kennedy presidency.
[6] She performed arias from La sonnambula and Lucia di Lammermoor at the reopening of Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on January 30, 1968.
[3] She appeared in the world premières of Robert Ward's The Crucible in 1961, Douglas Moore's Carry Nation in 1966,[10] and Lee Hoiby's Natalia Petrovna in 1964.
[12] She retired in 1977 due to the effect of multiple sclerosis on her breathing, but continued to teach for several years and to direct productions as an associate professor at the State University of New York at Purchase.