Rachel L. Cook

COOK
RACHEL L.
Rachel Lovejoy Cook, 82, a native of Hollis, N.H., died February 27, 2003. a resident of Port St. Lucie, FL. since 1977, she was the only child of the late Wendell Ruel Lovejoy and the late Emma Spaulding Lovejoy. Married to the late Donald E. Cook for fifty-six years, she is survived by three sons: Donald E. Cook Jr. of Livonia, MI, Wendell E. Cook of Port St. Lucie, FL, and David E. Cook of Northville, NY; and two grandchildren: Michelle L. cook of Arlington, VA and Donald E. Cook III of Inkster, MI. A graduate of Bethlehem, N.H. high school, she attended Southern Pines, N.C. high school and the University of New Hampshire. Like so many of the class of 1941, she did not graduate, but volunteered to serve her country. She received American Red Cross Training at American Univ. in Washington, D.C., serving at the Chelsea Naval Hospital, Chelsea, MA, and the Camp Edwards Military Hospital in Falmouth, MA. She also attended Mary Brooks School in Boston, MA, taking Medical Secretary courses. Rachel Cook lived in O'Hara Twp., Allegheny Co., PA for almost thirty years prior to December 1977, when she relocated to Port St. Lucie, FL. A teacher and writer, she became Managing Editor of Pennsylvania's oldest weekly newspaper, the Sharpsburg Herald, Sharpsburg, PA. She participated in the world's first two-week shelter habitability test, with her family, in 1960 for the American Institute of Research. She served as a judge of elections in O'Hara Twp., U.S. Census director for O'Hara Twp. in 1960 and then for the Fox Chapel Area School District. For a quarter of a century she and her husband were co-chairs of the Etna H.S. (PA) reunion committee for the class of 1937. In Port St. Lucie, she and her husband operated the snack bar at the PSL Community Center in 1981. Rachel Cook was member of the Beautiful Waters Needle Arts Club, the St. Lucie Co. Executive Committee for the G.O.P., and a charter member of the following organizations: The Elephant Club, the Community Center Players (later the St. Lucie Community Theater and Pineapple Playhouse), Treasure Coast Genealogical Society and Associate Member of the PSL Chamber of Commerce. As a member of the St. Lucie County Historical Society she was the volunteer manager of its' gift shop (Pineapple Patch) at the St. Lucie County Historical Museum from 1989 to 1992. she had ten thousand hours of volunteer time accumulated with the Council on Aging and volunteer time accumulated with the council on Aging and volunteered with the Red Cross when Port St. Lucie had its recent wildfires. She was a member of the D.A.R. Raised as a Methodist, she married in the Lutheran church, and became a Presbyterian. Funeral arrangements are under the supervision of ROGER L. BYRD FUNERAL HOME,Port St. Lucie FL. Following cremation, Mrs. Cook will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Alexandria, VA with her husband, winner of a Silver Star for gallantry in action in Korea. A Committal service will be at 10 am, on March 21, 2003, friends, family and relatives invited.
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