Garth Brooks to Sue Oklahoma Hospital for $500,000

By Michael Y. Park

12/16/2009 at 03:30 PM EST

"Unanswered Prayers" singer Garth Brooks says that his quest to make his mother's name "More Than a Memory" at an Oklahoma hospital has gone unfulfilled – and he's suing the medical center for $500,000 as a result.

Four years ago, the recently out-of-retirement country crooner says, he gave Integris Canadian Valley Regional hospital in Yukon, Okla., the half million dollars to finance a building that would bear the name of his mother, Colleen Brooks, who died of cancer in 1999.

But, according to a court filing by Brooks, 47, the hospital never included the promised building in a $27 million expansion project, leaving CVR in breach of contract, TMZ reports.

"Garth's heart is broken over this," a source close to Brooks tells PEOPLE.



A hospital spokesman tells TMZ that there's been a misunderstanding, and that they're hoping for a "swift and amicable end."

Not likely. Brooks's rep tells PEOPLE: "This deals with his mother, the home town and the people he grew up with and is deeply personal."

• Reporting by JULIE JORDAN

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