Biography

Cook - Nancy Clyde Cook (1882-1962)

Father – Allen B. Cook (1849-1934) Mother – Cynthia T. Bentley (1852-1922) Birth Date – August 26, 1884 Born at – Massena, New York

Significant Education: 1912 - Syracuse University B.A.

Partner – Marion Dickerman (1890-1983) Nancy met Marion Dickerman at Syracuse University and they became partners for life.

Occupation – Teacher – suffragist - Co-owner of the Todhunter School Executive Secretary of the Women's Division of the State Democratic Committee for 19 years. Helped to elect FDR governor of New York and President of the United States

Nancy established Val-Kil Industries in 1927 with Marion Dickerman, and Caroline O’Day. Val-Kil operated a small factory to provide supplemental income for local farming families who would make furniture, pewter, and homespun cloth using traditional craft methods. Capitalizing on the popularity of the Colonial Revival, most Val-Kill products were modeled on eighteenth-century forms. (Descriptive phrase from Wikipedia).

Home – Stone Cottage at Val-Kil on or near the Roosevelt estate, Hyde Park, New York. Nancy, Marion and Eleanor built the cottage in 1925 with Franklin Roosevelt’s enthusiastic cooperation. Eleanor used the cottage as a get-away and Nancy and Marion lived there until after FDR’s death. They sold their shares to Eleanor in 1947 and moved to New Canaan, .

See – Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site – maintained by the National Park Service

Death Date – August 16, 1962 Death Place – Trumbull, Connecticut Cemetery – Westfield Cemetery, Westfield, New York – buried with Marion Dickerman

"Miss Nancy Cook of New York City is at the Old Fernald homestead at Fernald Point for the season. Miss Cook is associated with Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt in a furniture manufacturing business in that city." - The Bar Harbor Times, July 19, 1933

"Eleanor and Franklin: The story of Their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers" by Joseph P. Lash; foreword by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.; introduction by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., Norton, New York, 1971.

"Love, Eleanor: Eleanor Roosevelt and Her Friends" by Joseph P. Lash. Foreword by Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., Doubleday & Co., New York, 1982.

"Clio Was a Woman: Studies in the History of American Women," edited by Mabel E. Deutrich and Virginia C. Purdy, Howard University Press, Washington, D.C., 1980.