Mary Ellen Cook Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Funeral services for MARY ELLEN COOK, 87, will be held at 2pm Monday, November 16, 2015 at the Colyer Funeral Home Chapel with Pastor Daniel Russell officiating. Burial will follow in the Valley View Cemetery. Mary died at the Goshen Health Care Community Center on November 7, 2015. Do to Mary’s love of education and chickens memorials may be directed to Samaritan’s Purse to their Chicken and Poultry Projects or Teach A Child To Read and Write Project. The casket will be closed. Arrangements are under the direction of the Colyer Funeral Home and friends may send condolences to the family at www.colyerfuneralhome.com. Mary was born December 29, 1927 in Lincoln County, Oklahoma the daughter of Charles Webster and Cora May (Hunnicutt) Hunt. She graduated from Tryon High School in Tryon, Oklahoma in 1945 and attended college in Weatherford, Texas where she pursued a teaching degree. After receiving her teaching certificate, she moved to Satanta, Kansas to teach school at Busy Hill School. While teaching in Satanta she met Paul Cook and they were married on May 11, 1947. After marrying they helped run the Cook family farm and welcomed their first daughter Paula in 1948. In 1949 they purchased a farm in Eads, Colorado and ran it until 1954 when health issues required Paul to pursue another livelihood. They moved the family which now included another daughter Janie to Garden City, Kansas. While they were living in Garden City a son K. Paul was born. Mary and Paul moved the family to Craig, Colorado in 1959 and opened a Coast to Coast hardware store which they ran for two years. They sold the store in 1961, after the birth of their son Scott to spend more time as a family. After Scott started school, Mary worked as a teacher’s aide at Sunset Elementary School for nine years. She then decided to work in a newly opened children’s clothing store and later the Kmart in Craig. Mary worked at Kmart for ten years becoming the Apparel Manager. She was a Sunday School teacher, Girl Scout leader, Cub Scout leader, and room mother. She was prudent and successfully managed for family household often on a shoestring budget. She greatly valued education and encouraged her children and granddaughters to pursue higher level education. Survivors include her daughter Paula and husband Michael Murphy of New Bern, North Carolina, daughter Janie Steidley of Torrington, Wyoming, son K. Paul and wife Paula Cook of Seattle, Washington, and son Scott and wife Teresa Cook of Woodstock, Georgia. She is also survived by her ‘beautiful and smart’ granddaughters Kathryn (Nick) Lasky, Heather Murphy, Sarah (Nathan) Litton, Mary (Morgan) Martinez, Kendehl and Danielle Cook, Cara and Nicole Cook , and four great grandsons, Ethan and James Lasky, and Koen and Tyus Martinez. She was preceded in death by her husband Paul; three brothers Emery, Ivan and Charles Hunt; and two sisters Ruth Moore and Iva May Larson.

Mary Ellen Cook

December 29, 1927 - November 7, 2015