#  Agnes M. Hoovens 

 



   ![Agnes Hoovens](/sites/g/files/omnuum2761/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-04/hoovens1.png?itok=KYu-ZYMn) 

 

*Agnes Hoovens Brooks in Group Photograph of Women at HCO, 1925. Harvard Plate Stacks.***Agnes Mary Hoovens Brooks** (July 7, 1901-November 4, 1976)[1](#fn1) worked at the Harvard College Observatory as a Pickering Fellow from 1925-1926.  
   
At the HCO, Hoovens worked on measuring the mean magnitude of Cepheid variable stars on ten photographic plates in the Harvard collection.[2](#fn2) She also collected materials about the principle contributions of the greatest astronomers from the year 1400 to 1900, with the intention of later assembling them into a book.[3](#fn3) After earning her master’s degree in astronomy from Radcliffe College in 1926, she moved on to doctorate studies in astronomy at Columbia University in New York City.[4](#fn4)  
   
Hoovens was born and raised in Goshen, Indiana, to parents Amasa G. Hoovens and Emma Vail Hoovens.[5](#fn5) Her mother was well known locally as a successful businesswoman.[6](#fn6) Hoovens earned her bachelor’s degree from Iowa University in 1925.[7](#fn7) In 1927 or 1928, she moved back to Indiana and began working as a teacher,[8](#fn8) and on September 8, 1928, she married lawyer and musician Leonard Joseph Brooks Jr.[9](#fn9) The couple had a son named Leonard J. Brooks III and three grandchildren.[10](#fn10)

*Written by Elizabeth Coquillette, 2022*

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**Citations:**

[1](#ref1)-Application for marriage license, in “Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007”, [https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LKLR-Z8T/agnes-mary-hoovens-1901-…](https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LKLR-Z8T/agnes-mary-hoovens-1901-1976); “Obituary: Leonard Joseph Brooks Jr.,” The South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Indiana), May 3, 1979, p. 20.[↩](#ref1)  
[2](#ref2)-Annie Jump Cannon, “Report of the Astronomical Fellowship Committee,” Annual Report of the Maria Mitchell Association, vol. 24 (1926): 16-17. Bibcode: 1926MMAAR..24…16C[↩](#ref2)  
[3](#ref3)-Ibid.[↩](#ref3)  
[4](#ref4)-Annie Jump Cannon, “Report of the Astronomical Fellowship Committee,” Annual Report of the Maria Mitchell Association, vol. 25 (1927): 13-14. Bibcode: 1927MMAAR..25…13C.[↩](#ref4)  
[5](#ref5)-Application for marriage license, in “Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007”.[↩](#ref5)  
[6](#ref6)- “Mrs. Hoovens’ Estate $150,000,” The South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Indiana), May 10, 1956, p. 45.[↩](#ref6)  
[7](#ref7)- Cannon, “Report of the Astronomical Fellowship Committee” 1926.[↩](#ref7)  
[8](#ref8)-Application for marriage license, in “Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007”.[↩](#ref8)  
[9](#ref9)- “Married Recently in Goshen, Ind.” The South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Indiana), September 16, 1928, p. 20.[↩](#ref9)  
[10](#ref10)-“Obituary: Leonard Joseph Brooks Jr.”[↩](#ref10)