Glen A. Cook

Friday, January 23, 2015

When she learned her patient was from Dell, Arkansas, nurse Sharon Moore at the Great River Medical Center in Blytheville remarked that she had often enjoyed the lovely, cypress park with its feathery trees that stretched along the highway there. The old man in the ICU bed would have been pleased to hear it. He supervised the creation of the park, the planting of thousands of saplings and thousands more daffodils and designed the walkway that winds among them.

It was just one of many town projects in which he played a key role. Glen A. Cook, 92, husband, father, farmer and a Dell City Councilman for nearly 50 years, died Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015.

He leaves a wife, Jean Cook of Dell;

Two daughters, Leslie Ann Hogue of Dell and Barbara Glen Bradley of Memphis;

A brother, Joe Cook of Yakima, Washington; and

Three grandchildren, Silver Hogue, Kate Bradley and Jenny Bradley.

He was born in Cole, Missouri, in 1922, grew up in parts of Missouri, New Mexico and Texas, and graduated from Texas College of Mines with a degree in chemical engineering. During World War II, he served as a flight instructor and later as a captain in the U.S. Army Air Force, where he flew a B-17 in missions over Germany.

He met his future wife, Jean Moore, during flight training at Blytheville Air Force Base, married her in 1947 and settled in Dell where he grew cotton, wheat and soybeans. In 1957, he was named Farmer of the Year. He later served as president of the Mississippi County Farm Bureau and as a member of the board of directors of Farmers Bank.

Cook spent his life helping to make the little farming community more attractive. He built the Dell Post Office in the Williamsburg style, and as a town council member, supervised the remodeling of old storefronts on Dell's main street into the current city hall, and a garage and gas station into a cafe and station. He filled potholes, landscaped and removed an old silo eyesore.

To keep going, he exercised two hours a day. In his mid-80s, he would still frighten his family by walking the top of the big red barn at his home and climbing the Dell Water Tower to inspect them.

The cafe and the park were special to him. He wanted the people of Dell to have a place to eat and a place to walk. The cafe has struggled, and he was always its most loyal patron -- an old man sitting there in the mornings in his khaki jacket and bucket hat. But he never gave up hope that someday some operator would make a go of it. He walked the park every day, picking up trash.

He took no pay for his work on the council and very little credit. During the Dell centennial celebration, Mayor Kenny Jackson awarded him the key to the city, remarking that Cook was the kind of man who liked to work behind the scenes.

Walk the quiet path through the cypress trees someday. Let the waving branches erase the trouble from your mind and remember the man who loved the park, Glen A. Cook.

A memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Dell Methodist Church with the Rev. Marilyn Webb officiating.

Condolences can be expressed to the family at Cobb Funeral Home website at www.cobbfuneralhome.com.