Florence Carpenter Cook earned $75 a month as a first-year teacher. She taught elementary school in Florence, S.C., shortly after the Great Depression. The campus coffers ran dry during the year, causing her to go a few months without a paycheck. Dedicated, she kept teaching.
This educator taught 38 years, 22 of which were spent at Fernbank Elementary School, which was called Druid Hills Elementary when she started there in the 1950s. Prior to Fernbank, she logged time at a Newton County school and a high school in Commerce, where she assumed various duties.
"In Commerce, she taught chemistry, home economics and she was the dietitian," said Ann Pleasants, a daughter from Newport News, Va. "She'd get the kitchen crew working, go the classroom, then run back to the kitchen to make sure they were preparing the meal."
In 1997, Florence Carpenter Cook, of Covington and Atlanta, moved to Newport News to live with her daughter. She'd been there the past few years, and on July 23 the educator died from a urinary tract infection at The Gardens at Warwick Forest, a nursing home. She was 93. A graveside service will be held at 3:30 p.m. today in the Covington City Cemetery. J.C. Harwell & Son Funeral Home of Covington is in charge of arrangements.
A Demorest native, Mrs. Cook attended Piedmont College on an academic and athletic scholarship. She played basketball in college and, as part of a work-study program, helped out in the kitchen. She graduated in three years and was the class salutatorian, as was the case in high school. She took summer courses at the University of Georgia and the University of Tennessee, and throughout life rooted for the Vols.
As a teacher, Mrs. Cook tried to engage students and disallowed course books to confine her style. When she taught fourth-grade science, "she brought out the Bunsen burners and did experiments," her daughter said. "Her students grew crystals."
Mrs. Cook was married to the late H. Carter Cook, a Sears automotive salesman who died in 1994. Three years later, while still physically active and able, she moved to Newport News. There, she joined the region's Philanthropic Educational Organization and worked in the library at Hidenwood Presbyterian Church.
When she retired from Fernbank Elementary, she was interviewed for a PTA story entitled "A Talk With Mrs. Cook."
"I hope that I've given children a challenge," she said at the time. "I want them to become curious and to search things out for themselves."
Additional survivors include a sister, Ethel Lovett of Atlanta; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
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