DUANE
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Duane's take
The official marker's the source here, and I'm just the one bringin' it to life. Now settle in, because this is the kind of story Texas grows better than just about anywhere else. The story of a man who showed up in one small corner of the state and decided, quietly and completely, to be everything a town needed.
Robert Cooke was born in Emory, Texas, the youngest son of William and Nancy Cooke. Now, being the youngest has a way of putting something in a person, some quiet determination to prove the world wasn't finished with them yet. Robert took that determination and aimed it straight at learning.
He attended Waco College, the school that would later become Baylor University, and then he kept going. All the way to Kentucky for medical school, where in 1886 he received his degree. And here's where it starts to get interesting.
The same year he earned that medical degree, 1886, he married Sallie Mitchell. The man did not believe in doing one thing at a time when he could do two. He began his practice in Kentuckytown.
Then, in 1889, he moved to the Winters area. And that's when a community got very, very lucky. Because Robert Cooke became the town's first doctor.
The first. When sickness came knocking, and out on the Texas plains it always did, there was one man standing between a family and the worst kind of news. That was Robert Cooke.
But medicine wasn't the whole of him. He became a deacon in the first church, and later, he stepped up further still and became its pastor. Doctor on Monday, preacher on Sunday, and by every account, fully committed to both.
He and Sallie raised five children together. The marker doesn't need to strain to make the case. It just says it plain: beloved by all as physician and Baptist preacher.
And in a small Texas town, being beloved by all is about as tall as a man can stand.
What the marker says
Born in Emory, Texas, youngest son of William and Nancy Cooke. Attended Waco College (now Baylor University); medical school in Kentucky, received degree, 1886. Began practice, Kentuckytown. Moved to Winters area in 1889. Became town's first doctor; and deacon in first church and later pastor. Married 1886, Sallie Mitchell. Had five children. Beloved by all as physician and Baptist preacher.