Lloyd Cook

Lloyd Thomas Cook was born April 7, 1928 in Webster City, Iowa to Roscoe and Laura (Van Devender) Cook. The family moved to a house on Milcheskey Road near Patzau, Wisconsin when Lloyd was three years old, and the children attended Milcheskey School. He was the fourth of twelve children, of which ten lived to adulthood. Together they created a great swath of 'Cooks' across the US that had a strong presence in Wisconsin. As young adults, several of the Cooks lived in the Milwaukee area, where Lloyd met the love of his life, Ruth Adelaide Crouch. Lloyd and Ruth married on December 26, 1953, and went on to have five children together. Lloyd died January 12, 2025 at the Veterans Home of California - Yountville.

Lloyd grew up in the Depression era, and went out to work full-time at the age of twelve. This was not uncommon at that time due to the economic conditions. During his teen years, Lloyd worked on farms, made roof shakes in Yacolt, Washington for his Aunt Cora, and in 1945, traveled to Alaska on the North Star. He told about the ship delivering supplies all the way out to the end of the Aleutian chain, and about how seasick he got on the Bering Sea.

Lloyd served in the Army in the Korean war, and used to tell stories that made it feel as if the listener was there with him in the leaking tents, on watch in the freezing rain, or meeting up with his brother when both ended up in the same town for a few hours.

Lloyd was the epitome of an extrovert. He never met a stranger, and was always willing to lend a hand to anyone, from inviting them home for a meal to handing them some gas money. He was gregarious and also opinionated, which made for some interesting discussions around the dining table. He worked hard, enjoyed a challenge, and was loyal to his family. While having had to leave school young due to economic circumstances, Lloyd went to night school in his late thirties to get his diploma- he was determined to do so to set an example to his children.

Lloyd and Ruth were dairy farmers in the early years of their marriage until 1968, when they moved the family on an old school bus to Anchorage, Alaska. For the five years spent in Anchorage, Lloyd served on the police force. They returned to Wisconsin, this time to Coleman, for another stint of dairy farming. After all the kids were well out on their own, Lloyd and Ruth became motel managers, and traveled the breadth of the country working mostly for Motel 6. It took a couple of attempts at retirement before that stuck, and Lloyd and Ruth settled in central Oregon. Even then, they took regular trips in their fifth wheel camper to California, the Midwest, and back to Alaska, always stopping to see far flung family and friends along the way.

Lloyd was a member of the Church of the Nazarene for all of his adult life, and often served in various capacities at his local church.

Following Ruth's passing in 2019, Lloyd sat out the pandemic in Redmond OR, and then moved to his sister Julie's house in Illinois, where he had planned to stay. Both his health and Julie's health prompted a move to California, where Lloyd made an effort to walk a mile every day. Having been married for 65 years, Ruth's death was a profound loss for Lloyd, and he never stopped grieving her in the years after her passing.

Lloyd is predeceased by his wife Ruth, his grandson Jonathan and nearly all his siblings: Richard, Ruthie, Annie, Esther, Willis, Irene, Stanley, Julie, plus two that died in infancy, George and Ethel. He is survived by his children: Roger (Kerry) Cook of Redmond OR, Louise (Tom) Vickery of Eleva WI, David (Ronnie Hess) Cook of Momence IL, Irene Flack of Santa Rosa CA and Clayton (Paula Hansen) Cook of Santa Rosa CA. Lloyd is also survived by 13 grandchildren, 22 greatgrandchildren (with two more on the way) and 10 great-greatgrandchildren, his sister Patricia Betts of Summerfield, FL and many beloved nieces and nephews and other family too numerous to list.

Services are planned for January 27, 2025 at Wilson's Chapel of the Roses at 12:30 pm, and burial will be at the Roseburg National Cemetery in Roseburg, Oregon.