I think it's likely the reports of Brenda K. Brookshire's premature perishment are greatly exaggerated. She married first in late 1977 and divorced in the fall of 1980, about a year after their son was born. By 1986 she had remarried and at some point, her son took his step-dad's surname.

As best as I can determine, Brenda was still living when her father passed in 1991, when her mother passed in 2008, and when her mother-in-law passed in 2017. She turned 63 in March of the latter year.

In addition to Miss Lake Cumberland 1973, she was also Miss Lexington, 1972; Miss Kentucky Bicentennial 1975; and a contestant in the 1972 Miss Kentucky Pageant.