Jack Davis Cook Sr.

Longtime Starkville banker Jack Davis Cook, Sr., 93, died early Sunday at Oktibbeha County Hospital. Services will be at 2 p.m.today at Starkville First United Methodist Church. Burial will be in Oktibbeha Memorial Park.

A native of Penn Station located in southwest Lowndes County, he moved with his family to Starkville when he was in the fourth grade. A graduate of Starkville High School and a 1939 graduate of Mississippi State College (now MSU), where he lettered as a pitcher on the baseball team.

His experiences with Coach Dudy Noble and his MSU professors began a lasting relationship with MSU through the institution s alumni association serving as treasurer from 1951-1978. The MSU Alumni Association honored him as its alumnus of the year in 1975.

He was an officer, director and vice president of Security State Bank during his about 40 years of service with the financial institution, and served briefly as city clerk of the City of Starkville after returning from World War II. He was a veteran serving with the Americal Division in the South Pacific.

Mr. Cook was a longtime supporter of the Starkville Boys and Girls Baseball Association, having donated untold hours of service as an umpire and is credited with helping a group of baseball enthusiasts and the Starkville Rotary Club develop the T-Ball program.

Mr. Cook had served as treasurer and in numerous leadership positions, including administrative board, of the Starkville First United Methodist Church.

An avid MSU sports fan, hunter and fisherman, he was a charter member of the Starkville Quarterback Club, and held memberships in the MSU M Club, the MSU Dugout Club, life member, treasurer and recently recognized for 50 years in American Legion, Forty and Eight, and Starkville Kiwanis. Mr. Cook was honored by the Starkville Exchange Club with enrollment in its Book of Golden Deeds in 1985. He had also served as president of the Starkville Area Chamber of Commerce, and later honored with the organization s T.E. Veitch Award in 1983. He was preceded in death by his wife of 42 years, Bessie Alberta McIngvale Cook.

Survivors include his son and daughter-in-law, Jack D. Cook, Jr., and Cecelia Rackley Cook of Starkville; daughter and son-in-law, Nancy Moon Cook Ball and Tom Ball of Starkville; three grandchildren, Jay Cook, of Starkville, Betsy Moon Ball of Starkville, and Charles Perry Ball, III, of Orlando, Florida, and numerous nephews, nieces, and cousins.

Memorials may be made to the Mississippi State University Foundation, Mississippi State Alumni Association, the Starkville First United Methodist Church, Palmer Home for Children or St. Jude Children s Hospital in Memphis.

You can go online and sign the guest register at: www.welchfuneralhomes.com.