Julius Caleb "J. C." Cook

December 4, 1938 — January 30, 2025

Julius "J. C." Cook, 86, died peacefully Thursday, January 30, 2025 in Muskogee in hospice surrounded by his sons, nephews, nieces, great-nephews and great-nieces while under the endlessly compassionate and watchful care of the doctors and nurses of St. Francis Hospital and the Jack C. Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

He is predeceased by his father, Louie B. Cook, a merchant marine lost at sea at Christmas time 1954; his oldest brother, L.B. Cook, Jr. in 1968; his brother-in-law, Curtis Crater in 1968; his mother, Flora Annie (Shillings) Cook in 1974; his nephew, William "Billy" D. Cook, Jr.; his brother-in-law, Paul Gillispie, Sr. in 1987; his nephew, David Crater in 1987; his nephew, Curtis Gillispie in 1989; his sister, Flossie M. (Cook) Gillispie on Christmas Eve 2000; his sister, Betty Jean Crater in 2001; his wife of twenty-five years, mother of his four sons, Margaret Anne Cook in 2007; and his brother William David Cook, Sr. in 2014.

He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas but his earliest memories were of growing up in Muskogee—and then parts far and wide from Mobile to Mississippi—then back to Oklahoma. He is survived by his sons: Peter N. Cook (and Lynne L. Hagerup) of Oceanside, California, Paul A. Cook of Burlington, Vermont, Patrick C. Cook (and Tracy A. Meier) of South Burlington, Vermont and Michael L. Cook of Nashville, Tennessee.

He leaves a wealth of treasured nephews and nieces and their children and their children's children: his nephew, Paul Gillispie, Jr. and Brenda Gillispie of Scipio, Oklahoma; his niece, Glenda Dedmon of Alba Wood, TX; his nephew, Robert Gillispie of McAlester, Oklahoma; his niece, Deborah Crater of Perry, Oklahoma; and his niece, Brenda Cook of Houston, Texas; his beloved sister-in-law, Carolyn Cook of Monticello, Arkansas and her two sons, James Cook (and Shirley Cook) of Camden, Arkansas and Louis Cook (and Karri Cook) of Bossier City, Louisiana.

He is survived by his beloved "adopted" family: Lori Bourgault of Anthony, Florida and her daughter Kacie Bourgault of Columbia, Maryland by whom he has been called Dad and Grandpa for nearly three decades.

He is survived by his second ex-wife, Ida Laura Marineau of Montpelier, Vermont.

He is also survived by fifty years'-worth of golfing buddies, neighbors, friends, former in-laws, old girlfriends, old customers, old employees, old employers, old dance partners and old familiar faces whom he never forgot over a lifetime of being a Vermonter by way of love and chance and choice.

He followed his brother W.D. "Dub" Cook into the Air Force in 1956. He was a skinny eighteen-year-old hardscrabble Oklahoma boy looking to see what's out there.  The Air Force put him to work in its Strategic Air Command's Cold War radar tracking stations in Alaska, Maine and then Vermont. In Vermont, he met the daughter of a second-generation French-Canadian immigrant family who found his cowboy boots and Oklahoma lilt and down-home independence to be a bit more colorful than the other boys their oldest daughter brought home. After a decade, however, J. C. and Peggy bought a little house and filled it with grandsons to keep the grandparents busy. The Air Force kid from Oklahoma made Vermont his home and his own while never ceasing to refer to Oklahoma as "down-home".

By the early 1990s with the boys grown and life moving along as it will, he divorced and remarried and headed back to McAlester to buy a little fixer-upper to get of out the brutal Vermont winters. The marriage didn't last all that long, but the little place in McAlester became home.

He beat throat cancer in May 2019. Upon hearing that he was out of danger, he declared that everything from then on was "pure gravy, bonus time, better than free money dropping from the sky…" Last summer he shot his age—85—on a visit to Vermont on one of his favorite golf courses. Come last fall, he was up the ladder on the roof helping one of his sons in Vermont to fix the roof.  By Thanksgiving, he was back down-home with the nephews and nieces and friends and family at his nephew and niece's ranch in Scipio. On his birthday the following week, he was at a birthday gathering at Top Golf in Oklahoma City showing 'em how it's done.

Then the cancer came back to collect without mercy. "I'm not afraid," he said.

He will be cremated and interred with his mother and sisters and family in Memory Gardens in McAlester. Arrangements are still pending.

Also coming: this obituary will include a link to a Celebration of Life slideshow tribute. Please check back soon to find the link and join in sharing memories.

In lieu of flowers, his lifelong favorite charities were the Salvation Army, the Disabled American Veterans and St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

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Julius Caleb "J. C." Cook

Father, uncle, friend, mentor,

grandpa-at-large, deadly serious kidder,

championship golfer, bowler, prankster,

fun-seeker extraordinaire, lover of children of all ages.

A true self-reliant Oklahoman and

fiercely independent Vermonter