Her Birth and Early Years
Margery Josephine Davis was the 2nd child born to Gleason and Edna Davison on the family farm two miles south of Weston, Ohio. She was known as “Sis” for the first five years of her life until she entered 1st grade at Weston School. Her younger brother contracted an illness common to farmers and she had to go live with her strong willed aunt who preferred to call her “Josephine.” That is the name that stuck until it was shortened to Jo. She spent much of that year away from home while her brother was cured of his disease. Back together as a family, her parents bought their own farm near Grand Rapids, Ohio where she went to Middle School and High School–in the same building!
Jo was recognized early in her life that she was gifted at music. Though it was expensive to take piano lessons, her parents saw to it that she got them. She continued working at her piano playing until graduation from high school in 1939. Her piano teacher became a role model and Jo determined to follow her with a career in Music Education. But without money to go to college, Jo worked for two years in Bowling Green, Ohio to pay for one year at Bowling Green State University beginning the Fall Semester in 1941. And she majored in Music.
COLLEGE aND EARLY MUSIC CAREER
Four months later, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and America found itself at war with both Japan and Germany. College life changed dramatically as all the young men either enlisted to fight in the war or were drafted. Soldiers and sailors training for technical duties were assigned to the Bowling Green State University campus and the school atmosphere became like the rest of the nation–totally involved in the war for democracy and freedom.
Jo wanted to master her subject and so transferred to The Ohio State University to complete her degree in Music. She graduated from Ohio State in 1946 and began teaching music, splitting her time between Weston High School and Tontagany High School. Her principal asked her if she could organize and lead because the football and basketball teams needed a pep band. He told her it did not have to be good but it had to be loud! She said she thought she could do the job. She soon settled into her role and loved it. Ironically, her new music room was the same room she had begun her schooling in the first grade in 1926!
MARRIAGE AND A NEW FAMILY BEGINS
Jo was teaching music in school when her younger sister, Pat, a student at Bowling Green State University, fixed her up for a blind date with a young man named George Cook. George had fought in World War II in the Army Air Force and was home and ready to get an education. A man with gifted hands, a keen interest in Mechanical Engineering and a love for cars, he was thrilled to meet this young music teacher with a bright red Chevy–one of the first to roll off the assembly lines after World War II. (Young people will not know how important that was but older folks remember that Henry Ford said you could have any color car you wanted from Ford…as long as it was black.) As George came out to meet Jo, he first walked around her stunning red car and knew that he had found a kindred spirit. Never a man to waste time, George and Jo were soon engaged and then married on November 8, 1947. George soon went to work and so did Jo. They were going to be successful Americans with the post-World War II dream of a nice home, a two car garage, money in the bank and enough left over to take vacations and provide for all their needs.
Jo was soon pregnant with their first child, Rick. They moved to suburban Cleveland and lived with George’s mother while he went to work for General Motors. Rick was born in late September, 1948. Then Cindy was born in June of 1950. George was in a hurry to make something of himself and support his growing family so he left the Cleveland area and moved back to Bowling Green. George was the kind of man who worked with his hat on–he changed jobs often, always looking for upward mobility. He had jobs in Purchasing, Sales, and Engineering. Two more children were born then in Bowling Green, Gayle and Phil. George was busy and wearing himself out trying to get ahead. Jo was busy with four small children and wearing herself out too. Pressure mounted. Would they find the American dream? Would they work themselves into early graves or a bitter divorce? Instead of the marriage blowing apart, God Himself personally intervened!
A NEW LIFE, A NEW MARRIAGE AND A NEW FAMILY
Jo had grown up in a Christian home and learned the lingo of Christianity. She could talk about religion with her parents and siblings and friends at church. She fit in well at church and she could fit into the secular world with its different values and goals. George had been forced to go to church as a child and found it irrelevant as a young adult. Jo would take the children off to church on Sunday and George would stay home and read the paper or in the warm months, play golf. They were going their separate ways. But God had other plans. The young minister of Jo’s Baptist church sought to befriend George. He had George, an amateur barber, to cut his children’s hair and then asked George to teach him to play golf. A friendship soon developed and the gentle but persistent young pastor began to ask George questions on the golf course that he could not answer.
–What was his purpose in life?
–What did he want to do with his life?
–Who was God and where did He fit into the picture?
–What was he going to do with his sins when he had to stand before God on Judgment Day?
–Why did he think Jesus came to earth?
–Why did Jesus have to die?
–Did He really rise from the dead? What did that mean?
–What did it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his immortal soul?
George became increasingly convicted in his heart that he was a rebel, estranged from God and under the just sentence of God as a rebel law-breaker. He saw that he desperately needed a Savior and Jesus was that Savior. Privately, in the presence of God, George prayed and sought forgiveness, asked for help in repenting from his self-focused heart and turning to Christ to be His Savior and the Lord of his new life. To the amazement of the members of that small Baptist church in Bowling Green, George went forward to make a public profession of his personal trust in Christ and asked to be baptized. Jo was amazed because George had not shared his inner turmoil with her but had wrestled with the issues on his own heart silently, for some time. His public profession of faith and baptism proved to be true signs and symbols of the real deal. George was indeed a new man and was never quite the same again. People who had known George for years were amazed at the change in his life. Old vile habits gave way to new patterns of living that pleased God. Jo had a new husband who was intent on following Christ. The question was, would Jo follow her husband? Her childhood religion of “do’s and don’ts” gave way to a new found faith in Christ as a living Savior who intervened in the lives of men and could change her husband and change her too.
An opportunity came open for George to move from the small city of Bowling Green and their church family to the bustling capitol of Indiana, Indianapolis. George tried commuting for several months but the drive was just too far. He traveled with his Bible open on the front seat beside him so that he could read and memorize verses and meditate upon them. The hard-charging George was now hard-charging after a new job and his Savior and Lord too.
Despite the apprehensions of many Christians in Bowling Green that big city life in Indianapolis would corrupt George’s family, George made the decision before God to take the next step and move to Indianapolis in 1964. The Cooks moved to Carmel, Indiana, the then sleepy suburb north of Indianapolis. Jo had prayed about it with her husband and determined she would follow him, though it meant leaving their extended families and their church family behind. Many a wife has wondered if her husband was leading the family on a wild goose chase, but Jo was learning to submit herself to her husband’s leadership as they followed Christ together as a united couple following their Lord and Savior.
FRUIT-BEARING IN INDIANA
George and Jo blossomed in their new home, their new church and their new lives. Their four children grew up, graduated from school and went off to college. George found God blessing his work in incredible ways and he becme an amazingly good salesman of highly technical and expensive water filtration systems. He also played enough golf to become a near scratch golfer. They became faithful members of their Baptist church and George was the leading deacon. Jo was a faithful wife and homemaker, leaving her music teaching career aside to pour her life into her four children. She was faithful to explain the gospel of Christ to each of her children and her daughters credit her with leading them to the Savior.
A spiritual awakening was going on in America in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s and George and Jo were part of it. They soon found themselves immersed in an exciting student ministry that they never saw coming. Their first born child, Rick, had become a Christian his first year at Purdue University through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. Their daughter, Cindy, soon joined him at Purdue and also became involved in Campus Crusade where her faith was established on a firm footing, and deepened to meet the challenges of college life.
The Cooks were so impressed with the changes and maturation of their children at college that they too became involved in Campus Crusade for Christ. George and Jo began opening their home in the summer months to returning college students who were interested in gathering each week–not for parties and carousing but Bible study and prayer! Scores of students would gather in their spacious basement for these meetings. George and Jo would sit on the stairs to the basement and pray. Jo would stay up to fellowship with the students while “early to bed George” told the students to take their joyful conversations outside!
George soon learned to use his golf prowess to hold exhibitions with Christian golfers about the game of golf and the game of life. Jo had grown up in a Christian home with a mother who loved books and loved to study and teach the Bible. Jo soon was immersed in Bible studies and making up for lost time in learning more about her Savior. It was not long before Jo was asked to teach a Bible study. It was challenging but she thrived in both studying her Bible and making it come alive in ladies studies.
Their two younger children, Gayle and Phil, watched their older siblings sprout as Christians. They were soon enrolled in a new Christian school in Indianapolis and George and Jo were actively involved in their education and extra-curricular activities. Jo was a faithful wife to George and a sounding board for his ideas and dreams. When they faced problems, they talked and prayed together. As she became more heavily involved in ladies Bible studies, Jo was not over-involved such that she neglected her children. A large women’s conference was held in Brown County State Park in Indiana each year and Jo became one of the founders and leaders of that movement. Top speakers from around the country were invited to speak and Jo helped in the training of hundreds of Christian women to love their Savior, their husbands and their children. That conference lasted for four decades. Many women in heaven will point to Jo Cook and tell of her faithfulness to love them and teach them the Word of God.
SLOWING DOWN AND MOVING SOUTH
In 1981, after a decade of great work success and intense Christian involvement, George decided to dial back from their busy lifestyle and moved to Florida. Fort Myers in south Florida became their home for twelve years.
George continued to play golf and give golf lessons, make clubs for friends and give exhibitions where he shared his testimony, all the while winning many Senior Tournaments. Jo also took up golf seriously and befriended women on the golf course and witnessed to them. She taught Sunday School at their large Baptist church. George became a deacon and then chairman of the deacons. Their home on a golf course became “the last of the free vacations” for their children and grand-children. And many Christian missionaries became the recipients of large donations given out by the Cooks to fund the work of taking the gospel around the world.
George and Jo entered into the happiness of their children. Their first born son, Rick, became a missionary to college students and then went to Nigeria, West Africa. Their first born daughter, Cindy, was a pastor’s wife, married to a Baptist pastor in Atlanta. Their second daughter, Gayle, was married to a high school principal who left public school administration to begin a key ministry to hurting and alienated dropouts in northern Indiana.
Their youngest son, Phil, became an investigator for an insurance company and an elder and youth leader in his church in Indianapolis.
As the natural problems of advancing age began to catch up with Jo and George, they decided they would move near to one of their children who could help care for them in their final years. In 1993 they moved to south Atlanta to Peachtree City to be near their oldest daughter, Cindy. They bought another home on a golf course and got busy in their local church. Jo started the library of the church, got George to build the bookcases for the library and she meticulously catalogued the hundreds of books. They attended church and prayer meetings faithfully and sought to distribute Bibles in their neighborhood. Jo hosted a neighborhood Bible study taught by her daughter. They took their near neighbor, Lila Opfer, to church with them each Sunday for over ten years until Lila died.
As it had been in Ohio, and in Indiana and in Florida, so it went in Georgia. George and Jo were committed to their Savior and his local churches, to their beloved children and grand-children. Jo would always be up to play some board games with their kids and grand-kids. She loved to laugh and could readily laugh at herself.
PREPARING FOR THE FINAL CHALLENGES OF THEIR LIVES
George and Jo’s retirement years were not all easy nor fun. Their first born, Rick, died prematurely at age 50 of a heart attack at Campus Crusade for Christ training in Colorado. When their pastor came by to tell each of them the news of their dear son’s death, each of them put their face in their hands, cried out in grief, and prayerfully submitted themselves to the will of their God. Parents do not plan on burying their children. But they believed the promises of God and did not give way to unbelieving despair. Rick’s funeral was a celebration of a life lived in Christ’s service and the church was filled to overflowing.
After several years of battling several ailments, in 2009 George went to be with the Savior he loved from afar. He who George loved by faith would now be loved by sight. Jo’s trust in Christ was a steadying and stabilizing influence. She did not grieve as an unbeliever would who had no hope of ever seeing her loved one again. She grieved as a Christian who believed and trusted God’s Word and who could say– “So long for now dearest–I will join you soon in heaven!” She donated the playground at their church as a testimony to her husband’s love for children.
Jo had her own battles for years. Her memory began to fail her badly. In 2011 her children honored Jo with a 90th birthday celebration at her church. Family came from around the country and a beautiful book of remembrance of her life was presented to her as an aid to help her memory of cherished loved ones. A video of her life and favorite songs played and she was like a child watching her life unfold before her in photo and song.
Struggling with dementia, Jo came to live with her daughter, Cindy, for the remaining five years of her life. She visited her other surviving children, Gayle and Phil, in Indiana, and they came down to visit her in Georgia. But her mind was no longer trustworthy and frequently let her down and frustrated her. She attended church functions with her daughter and stayed close to home. Travel became very difficult. She became more and more disoriented as her dementia turned to Alzheimer’s Disease. She fell on Christmas night, 2012 and was hospitalized for a bad contusion on her hip. After hospital and rehab, she could not return to living in her daughter’s home so she moved into Ashley Glenn Assisted Living Center in Peachtree City. There she made many friends among both the residents and staff and even played the piano right up to the last months of her life.
On Wednesday, January 8th, Jo fell and fractured her hip. In the hospital, they could help with the pain but Jo’s condition weakened so quickly that they could never get her vital signs stabilized to the point where they could perform hip surgery. She continued to deteriorate and was put in hospice care. She passed into the presence of the Lord peacefully on Wednesday evening, January 15th, 2014.
The Bible says that when a believer dies, they pass immediately into the presence of the Lord: “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2nd Corinthians 5:8). Jo has finished her race, she has fulfilled her calling. She is finally home forever! God’s own Word says in Psalm 116:5– “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Jo was precious to Christ and in turn, when she became a Christian, He became precious to her. They are finally together.
May those of us who have been privileged to know Jo emulate her faith and finish our lives well by living them to the glory of God.
A memorial service was held Saturday, January 18, 2014 at 11:30 a.m. at the Chapel of Mowell Funeral Home, Peachtree City. Reverend Steve Martin, Reverend Brandon Smith and Reverend Mantle Nance officiated.
Carl J Mowell & Son, Fayetteville – www.mowellfuneralhome.com
