May this dress encourage us to break rules and have fun!

This month has been so inspiring for me, as I research my feminine words of wisdom,

 I have found  some wonderful women that I have never heard of.  

Today's featured woman, Mary Lou Cook, is one of these amazing discovery.

“My advice is to be kind, be kind, be kind,” she said in an interview earlier this year at her 95th birthday celebration. “Everyone has a choice as to what their attention is going to be, and I chose peace, harmony and helping people.”

Born in an elevator at a Chicago hospital on April 29, 1918, Cook was one of three children of James and Louise Borders, who moved to El Paso so her father could become president of a bank. He died when she was 12, and his bank soon failed, forcing her mother to scrub floors and do other menial labor to make a living during the Great Depression.

“She would tell you that art and creativity saved her life,” said her friend Leslie Nathanson.

Mary Lou Cook met her husband, Sam Cook, at the University of Kansas, where she earned a degree in fine art in 1939. Her husband’s job in management of the Gray Bar Electric Co. meant the couple and their children moved often — El Paso, Texas; Tulsa, Okla.; Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee and Des Moines, Iowa.

She started doing volunteer work in El Paso and Kansas City, where she studied calligraphy. In Milwaukee, Cook helped to start an arts program for children. In Des Moines, she was a recruiter for the newly formed Peace Corps in 1962. In 1966, she was sent to Omaha, Neb., to organize a Peace Corps office there.

“At first, in Iowa, she had a very hard time fitting in because women at that time were supposed to be mothers only,” said her daughter Caren Cook. “But that’s where she really blossomed. She gave me the best life a kid could ever want. We had musicians over at our house every night and folk singers and black people, for heaven’s sake. It was a very, very rich life.”

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/peace-activist-mary-lou-cook-dies-at/article_1f223a64-a66a-5e7c-aeea-0cc10e6cc182.html

Mary Lou Cook was a peace activist, artist, minister, writer, founder of the Santa Living Treasures program and beloved local icon in the City Different. Often wearing her trademark distinctive hats, she was a regular feature at peace gatherings and other places where public affairs were discussed and decided upon. She served as New Mexico campaign manager for the presidential campaign of U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio. 

https://www.abqjournal.com/277306/activist-artist-minister-mary-lou-cook-dies-in-santa-fe.html

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, 

taking risks, breaking rules, 

making mistakes and having fun” 

Mary Lou Cook

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