Cyrus Cook and Ethel Reynolds

Joseph Albert Cook's son Cyrus left Saskatchewan to join the U.S. Marines in 1920, serving on a ship for two years. In 1923, he married Ethel Reynolds in Danville, Illinois.

Why did Cyrus go to Danville, Illinois? Did he have family there? Uncle Bert told me this story about how Gramma Ethel and Grampa Cy met.

"She probably told the story many times, but the time I remember is when I was about 10 or 12 years old. The details as I recall them may not be totally accurate but they are still as romantic as the gleam in my mother's eyes when she told me how she met her one and only Prince Charming.

"One of my dad's sisters (Hazel) was involved and she may have been a McCloskey [Michele's note: Hazel Cook married Alvin Klaffke]. My recall is vague on this. I believe my mother was working as a housemaid for the very persnickety McCloskeys or some of their friends or relatives.

"Anyway, my mother was a housemaid and on the dresser of her employer was a portrait. As fate would have it, the inevitable happened and my mother overheard that this handsome marine, having completed his tour of duty soon would be discharged and stopping in Danville, Illinois, for a visit...

"...the handsome devil showed up and I guess my mother just about swooned when she saw him. For several days, it seemed that she would never get to meet him. Then someone in the family died. Just as a strange coincidence, my mother and the dashing marine ended up riding in the same car.

"On the way to the cemetery, the men started lighting firecrackers and throwing them out of the car windows, which the women thought was pretty disgusting; that is, their trying to impress the women with their bravery. Not to be outdone by the other macho men, the marine was holding the firecrackers until the last split second when the inevitable happened and one of the firecrackers went off before he had quite gotten rid of it.

"At this moment, the macho expert rifleman became humble and the disgusted maid was overwhelmed with sympathy."

Cy got a job with the railroad in Danville and Bert Boyce Cook was born there. They moved later to Peoria, Illinois, where Mary Ann Cook, Gene Cook, and Ruth Louise Cook were born. On the 17th of January 1940, Cyrus Harold Cook became a United States citizen. During the war, the family moved to Chicago.

In the 1950s, Cy and Ethel left the cold, snowy Chicago winters for Tucson, Arizona. For many years, they lived in a trailer, but eventually Grampa Cy built their house on land they owned in the desert west of Tucson. Cy worked for Hughes Aircraft and later sold real estate. He passed away in 1982 and Ethel died in 1995.