Juanita Pulsipher Brooks (January 15, 1898 – August 26, 1989) was an American historian and author, specializing in the American West and Mormon history. Her most notable contribution was her book related to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, to which her grandfather Dudley Leavitt was sometimes linked, and which caused tension between her and the church authorities. She also made significant archival contributions in the form of collected pioneer diaries documenting early Mormon history in the Dixie, Utah area. Brooks remained a faithful believer throughout her life. Biography Early life Juanita Leone Leavitt was born and raised in Bunkerville, Nevada to Henry Leavitt and Mary Hafen. Her grandparents on both sides were polygamists; her paternal grandfather, Dudley Leavitt, being one of the primary founders of Bunkerville. From a young age she developed an interest in history when, "her brilliant, sensitive, and imaginative mind was saturated from childhood in Mormon lore." She was often employed as a grade school teacher in nearby Southern Utah. In 1919 she married Ernest Pulsipher, who died of lymphoma a little more than a year later, leaving her with an infant son, Leonard Ernest Pulsipher. After his death, she resumed her job as a teacher, and then received her bachelor's degree from BYU. Her first published work was a poem titled "Sunrise from the Top of Mount Timp," which appeared in the LDS periodical Improvement Era in 1926. Academia and family life After her bachelors degree, she settled in St. George, Utah, and became an instructor of English and Dean of Women from 1925–1933 at the LDS-backed Dixie Junior College. While on a sabbatical from Dixie College from 1928–1929, she obtained a master's degree from Columbia University. In 1933, the state of Utah discontinued funding for parochial Mormon secondary education. She resigned from the college after the program was cut and, in the same year, married a widower named Will Brooks. She became stepmother to his four sons, Walter, Bob, Grant, and Clair. Within five years the couple added a daughter, Willa Nita, and three sons to their family. Juanita Brooks had affectionate relationships with all of her children, including her step-sons, describing her family as "compound-complex". She would sometimes complain that she lacked time to write because of her family, but she also stated that her loved ones were essential to her happiness. Her children spoke highly of their mother at her funeral, telling stories of