Debra-Cook-Obituary

Photo courtesy of Boxwell Brothers Funeral Home - Perryton

Debra Lynn Cook

Jul 25, 1959 - Aug 15, 2025

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AFCU

Yazoo City

I have known Debbie since 1991 when I started working at Arlington Federal Credit Union in Arlington,TX. She was a funny and crazy person to work with. She had all of us calling her cousin, “Cousin Besty”! Debbie kept in touch after moving back home and we took two girls trip to Yazoo City, MS to visit another AFCU co-worker. I am saddened to think I will no longer hear “Hey, girl what cha do’in”? The world is a poorer place now with her gone. Rest in peace Deb.

Prayers to the family, so sorry to heR of Debbie's passing. She wS a special person.

Truly an amazing person !! Known her since 1998 and always the same sweet Debbie !! RIP

Debbie was my friend as she was with many others at the Arlington Police Department. She followed my 28 years with the PD just had a way about her. Anyone who knew Debbie would understand "away about her" and probably a few would be nodding their heads. We had many great conversations with drinks at the local watering hole. I truly loved Debbie I will miss Debbie I will continue to think fondly of Debbie and I will always remember her laugh. I would write about some of her sayings but...

This makes me so sad Prayers for all her family & friends

Debbie, your caring and giving heart can never be replaced. Thank you for always placing a wreath on my Daddy’s grave, and thank for having lunch with me when I visited Perryton. Even though time and distance were between us, you didn’t let that stop your sweet and loving heart. Rest easy dear lady. We’ll have another reunion soon.

Aunt Debbie was the best aunt. I have too many wonderful memories to list but I’ll share a few of my favorite - the funny story about my first flat tire, taking me to see Shania Twain in concert, taking me on adventures in the Gator, chasing me around the trees in Grandma Yauck’s yard, joyrides in her Mustang, and our shared loved of books. This still doesn’t feel real. She will be dearly missed. I’ll be seeing you.

Obituary

Debra's Obituary

Debra Lynn Cook, “Debbie” to friends and family, was born in Camden, New Jersey on July 25th, 1959.  She passed August 15th, 2025.  She is survived by her father Tark Cook, mother Jellean Yauck Daily, brother Walter Neal Cook, sister, Mary Nan Cook and sister, Angela Daily Thompson and her husband Ronald, niece Krystal Thompson Herard along with her husband Ryan and their son (great nephew) Dawson Herard.  She is proceeded by her beloved adopted mother June W. Cook, grandparents Fred and Marie Yauck, grandmother Mary Brownlee Cook and grandfather Fletcher Cook.

She was a proud graduate of Perryton High School and attended Texas Tech University.  While she was a life-long resident Texas she wasn’t the stereo-typically boastful Texan.  She was never boastful.  When asked, “Where were you born?”  she regarded their reply, “NEW JERSEY!” with her characteristic quiet good humor.  New Jersey is where her father happened to be stationed when she was born – that was back in the days when the draft was still in effect.  

Debbie grew up around her family’s farm and ranch.  Some of her best early memories came from days spent at her Grandpa and Grandma Yauck’s farm.  Their farmhouse was in an oasis of green grass, clover, flowers, picking cherries in the orchard and big cool shady elm trees on hot summer days.  She loved playing hide and seek with her brother, sisters and cousins.  And, every year, during the family Easter Egg Hunt, Debbie always found the Prize Egg.  

Her years growing up were spent taking Bus 3 to school, singing 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall with the O’Dell girls, doing homework, going to ballgames, playing the clarinet and tending to chores at the farm.  Every year, she raised sheep for the 4-H livestock show, every year she named her sheep and every year she mourned the day they were sold.  Everyone in town pretty well knew the buyers were going to lose money but the investment in youth was priceless.

One of her cherished family friends, growing up, was Sheri O’Dell.  The spent innocent days dragging Main, slumber parties, laughing talking and just doing girl stuff.  Sheri once said she could say anything to Debbie and Debbie would never betray her confidence.  It was one of the truest things a person could say about Debbie.  Debbie did not betray friends and loved ones.  

Early on, Debbie developed an interest in traveling, whether it be visiting relatives in South Texas or the mountains of Santa Fe, New Mexico to visit old family stomping grounds and grave-sights or she even traveled to Alaska with her mother Jellean.  They traveling at a time when the Trans-Alaskan Highway was a gravel road.  While the world watched astronauts take that, “One small step.”  For Alaska, it was the first live NASA event and Debbie watched from Alaska.

After High School and Tech, Debbie made her way from the windy plains of Texas to Arlington, Texas where she began her career in banking and credit unions.  Not only did she hone her skill in understanding banking, banking regulations and lending money; she also formed close friends and bonds.  With one of her best friends, Ann, they went hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  To be fair, they didn’t quite make it to the bottom but, they gave it gallant effort.  

The day came when it was time to leave big city life.  She returned to Perryton to raise cattle with her father and help her aging Grandma Yauck.  Debbie moved back to Perryton and started working at Teacher’s Credit Union.  At the same time, she helped her grandmother meet her daily needs then, later, transition to Perryton Senior Village.  In those last days of her grandmother’s life at Senior Village, Debbie visited and organized visits for her grandmother.  In particular, every Saturday evening either herself or someone else had to watch Lawarence Welk Music Hour with grandma.  Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease; it took almost everything but left just enough for grandma to enjoy the music of Lawrence Welk.  Lying in her hospital bed, Grandma would tap one finger to the rhythm of the music.   If you are up there Mr. Welk, thank you for giving grandma music and thank you Debbie, always faithful and loyal, for making sure she got to enjoy it.  

Back in Perryton, Debbie picked up on old friendships and made new ones.  Fonda Brown Clumskey was a great chum.  They kicked up the dust all over the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandle.

Debbie’s friend, Daryla Allred said, “Debbie reminded me of my grandma because she made me feel like I was somebody really special.”  They were part of a group of travel buddies and enjoyed Broadway shows in the downtown that never ends.  Debbie was a loyal friend and confident and always ready to answer the question, “Hey, you want to go to…?” with a “Yes!”  

Debbie had a passion for storytelling and was an avid reader.  While she loved Broadway, she preferred plays over musicals.  She gravitated toward fiction.  She preferred stories without a lot of characters but a lot of character development.  She could have given a list of her favorite books but certainly, To Kill a Mockingbird, would be amongst the top.  She read the book and watched the movie a few times.  It’s not hard to imagine why.  The protagonist, her name is Scout, had a father who practiced law.  He was a heroic figure who she adored.  Debbie adored her father who happened to practice law.  Scout was also a kid who marched to the beat of her own drum much like Debbie.

Debbie loved camping with her sister, Nan.  They had a life-long on-going dialog.  At the drop of hat, they might travel to a town, that happened to have the name of an ancestor just to see what it looked like, or Perryton Ohio (nuf sed), the Florida border, Lake Superior, Hwy 83 to Canada and then to Mexico, Devil’s Tower, and much more.  Debbie loved traveling.

From the cliffs of Moher in Ireland, she watched the mighty ocean waves of the Atlantic.  With her mother, Jellean, she traveled the frontiers;  With her friend Milene Thrasher, she circled the British Isles by ship; She climbed the Spanish Steps in Rome; She visited the Hearst Castle and and traveled the Pacific Coastal Highway; With her family, Tark, June, Nan and Walter, they took an old ocean liner and visited Victoria, Vancouver Island; She and her friends enjoyed their trips to Terry Bentley’s country house in the mountains.

If one were given a thousand wishes, one could never know to wish for such a loyal daughter, sister, aunt and friend as Debbie.  Debbie, your light shines on in us.

The family requests memorials be to the Museum of the Plains, 1200 N. Main St., Perryton, TX, 79070, or the Ochiltree County Senior Citizens Center, P.O. Box 738, Perryton, TX, 79070.

 

 

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