COOK, Ruby Mae

The Wickenburg Sun, Wickenburg, AZ May 15, 2002, p. A16 Ruby Mae Cook, a longtime resident of Yarnell, died May 10 in Wickenburg. She was 89. She was born June 14, 1912 in Abilene, Texas. Ruby's father was a blacksmith who liked to leave his home base in Waco, Texas, and roam the West. When Ruby was a teenager, the family traveled the West in a Model T Ford touring car, following the crops to California and up into Washington and Oregon. Her family first came to Peoria, Ariz., in 1917. She moved back to the Phoenix area permanently in 1932, after graduating from Waco High School and Toby's business school. On Dec. 23, 1932, Ruby married Kenneth Harold Cook of Peoria. (He died March 25, 1982 in Yarnell.) They were married during the bleakest time of the Great Depression, and scrambled for whatever work they could find. Ken was a truck driver, a mechanic, and a laborer. He later went to work for the U.S. Forest Service, and that work took the couple to a number of homes in central and northern Arizona. Ruby often had to make a home in makeshift quarters - a log cabin, a tent house, a former store building, and various house trailers. During World War II, when it was hard to find firefighters, Ruby fought forest fires alongside Ken. Later, she was for a number of years an "Avon lady" in Flagstaff, Happy Jack and Blue Ridge. Ruby and Ken moved to Yarnell in June 1972, after he retired from the Forest Service. Ruby was active in churches wherever she went. Her family helped found a Methodist church in Peoria when she was a child. Later, Ruby was a founder of Bethany Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, which grew out of Sunday School meetings in a school auditorium. She was active in the Methodist Church in Camp Verde; Federated Community Church in Flagstaff; and Yarnell Community Church. Ken and Ruby had three children: Jim Cook, now of Wickenburg; Dean Cook of Glendale; and Wanda Martin of Albuquerque, N.M. Ruby's children remember her as the woman who squeezed the nickels that Ken earned, in order to provide for them, and always believed in them and what they could achieve. She kept a comfortable home for them, and planted flowers wherever she went. For many years, Ruby was a volunteer at the Yarnell Public Library. She especially liked gathering files of information of the history of Yarnell. Ruby served six terms on the board of the Yarnell Water Improvement Association. She was active in Homemakers Club and a quilters' circle. Ruby is survived by three children; grandchildren Gwendolyn Martin of Santa Monica, Calif., David Cook of Glendale, Kenneth Cook of Thousand Oaks, Calif., and Julie Wullkotte and Kevin Cook of Phoenix. She also is survived by great-grandchildren Jessica, Jennifer, Jacque and Seth Wullkotte of Phoenix and Chandler Cook of Thousand Oaks, Calif. Services are scheduled for 11 a.m. today (Wednesday, May 15) at Community Church of Yarnell, 16455 W. Tabletop Way. Interment will follow at Genung Cemetery. Friends may make donations to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, Grand Central Station, P.O. Box 4777, New York, N.Y. 10163. Frey Funeral Home and Cremation Service handled all the arrangements.