Thursday, October 1, 2026
Annette Brokaw passed away on June 13, 2026, at home in Olympia, Washington. She was born on Aug. 24, 1928, to Lucretia “Crete” (Ruckman) and Andrew Paroz in Moscow, Idaho, and raised in Imbler, Oregon.
She attended Multnomah Bible College in Portland, Oregon, and worked in Hickman Mills, Missouri, for a Bible curriculum printing house, and for the American Sunday School Union (now InFaith), until her father's untimely death in 1956 brought her home to Oregon.
In 1958 she took a job at Kennewick General Hospital in Kennewick, Washington, where she met and became good friends with Betty (Brokaw) Johnson. She later met Betty’s family, including brother Charley, who she married on June 8, 1964. They settled on the Brokaw family farm south of Wilder, Idaho.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Charley; by her brothers and sisters and their spouses: Leon and Mary Adele (Rollins) Paroz, Duane Paroz, David Paroz, Joan (Paroz) and Coy Parks, Jr., and Meredith (Paroz) Patterson; by brothers and sisters-in law and their spouses: Orville and Lucille (Collins) Brokaw, and Betty (Brokaw) and Lester Johnson; and by one nephew, Coy “Skip” Parks III.
She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Heather and John Senn, Jr. of Olympia, a granddaughter, Carol Brobeck of Burlington, Washington, a sister-in-law, Carolyn Paroz (David) of West Frankport, Illinois, and a brother in-law, Michael Lavinder (Meredith) of Wentachee & South Bend, Washington; by cousins, nieces and nephews, and other extended family.
A memorial service will be held on Friday, Aug. 14 at 11:30 a.m. at Pleasant Ridge Grange #135 Hall in Caldwell, Idaho, following interment in Wilder, Idaho.
Memorials may be made to support your local missionary through InFaith.org; to the Berea College Tuition Promise Fund at berea.edu, or to a cause near your heart.
