Obituary of Margaret Gertrude Cook

Margaret Gertrude (Johnson) Cook was born April 25, 1915 to Anna Mae (Burnett) Johnson and Heiskell Johnson in a community in South Knoxville known as “Pennyrile”. She was one of 8 children with 6 brothers; Garland, Fritz, Wilbur, Ross, Raymond, Alfred, and 1 sister, Viola, who all preceded her in death. Margaret was always known as “Gertie” until her marriage to David Cook in 1968, although those who have known her before that marriage and her surviving nieces and nephews, still know her as Gertie. Gertie/Margaret attended New Hopewell School and later went to work at the Oak Ridge Nuclear Laboratory in the early 1940’s where she met and married App Riley Collins. Many years later they divorced. One child was born to them, Barbara Ann, with whom she lived following her move from Knoxville to Olympia, WA in early 2001, when she was 86 years old. Later that same year, due to rapidly increasing Dementia, Gertie/Margaret went to live at the Providence Mother Joseph Care Center Alzheimer’s Unit in Olympia, where she remained until her death, April 25, 2005. She was in good physical health, ambulatory and enjoyed visiting with everyone, up to just 1 week prior to her death. She was very close to her nieces & nephew; Mary Louise Bible of Clinton, TN; Libby McDowell of FL, Patty Rose of GA, Pam Abernathy of NC, Rene Manley of Salem, OR & Eddie Johnson of Gallatin, TN. Other nieces & nephews include; Connie Welty of FL, Janice Uballe of MI, Garlda Fay Johnson, Sandra Downey of KY & David Johnson of TN. Gertie/Margaret had lived in Pontiac, Michigan and South Gate, California in addition to TN and WA. She was a professional seamstress, spending the majority of her working years sewing at various textile companies in and around Knoxville. She loved animals, dogs especially, and had always had at least one, usually more. She loved attending church, grew up in the New Hopewell Baptist Church community in So. Knoxville, and last attended the Greenway Baptist Church in North Knoxville. She married David L. Cook in October 1968, & who preceded her in death in November, 1991. For the next 10 years she lived alone in the North Knoxville neighborhood on Fairfax Avenue. She loved her neighbors, walking her dogs and sitting on her front porch watching the world go by. Her life was long, interesting, and sometimes tumultuous, but she always had a life long dream of going to Hawaii. She hated water, such as lakes and oceans, and would never travel by air if she had to cross a large body of water. She used to say she would go to Hawaii as soon as she can drive there. So to Gertie/Margaret I say, “ Good-bye, Mother….I love you” Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there, I do not sleep; I am a thousand winds that blow; I am the diamond glints on the snow, I am the sunlight on ripened grain; I am the gentle Autumn’s rain. When you awaken in the morning’s hush, I am the swift uplifting rush; Of quiet birds in circled flight; I am the soft star that shines at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there, I did not die. Author unknown.