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Paul Cook
Longtime Kempner City Councilman Paul Franklin Cook, who also served a year as mayor, died Feb. 9, 2021 at the age of 83.
Visitation will be held Feb. 26 from noon to 1 p.m. at Crawford-Bowers Funeral Home in Copperas Cove, followed by a memorial service.
Interment with military honors will be held that afternoon at 3 p.m. at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen.
Cook was born in Springfield, Ohio on Dec. 27, 1937 to Beryl and Phyllis Cook.
He graduated from Springfield High School in 1955. He attended the University of Dayton from 1955-1956, and then Ohio State University from 1957- 1961. He later earned an Associate of Arts in June 1977 from Thomas Edison University, New Jersey.
Cook was drafted into the Army in August 1961 and was assigned to Fort Knox, Kentucky for basic training.
After basic training, he married Olive Katherine Cook in November 1961.
Following their marriage, Cook reported to Fort Holabird, Maryland, and trained in U.S. Army Intelligence. Over the next 20 years, he performed the duties of a special agent for Military Intelligence in Virginia, Ohio, Alabama, Hawaii, Arizona, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Korea, Germany and Thailand. These duties also included three years as a special investigator in the Department of Defense Investigative Service.
Cook retired from the Army as a chief warrant officer 3 in January 1982 at Fort Hood. After that, he worked at a motorcycle dealership; then with a defense contractor on Fort Hood and finally for civil service on Fort Hood in the counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence and Army security fields.
He finally retired from civil service in 1997 and pursued his hobby of collecting and restoring antique military Dodge Power Wagons. He operated the Texas Power Wagon Museum and loved to share his knowledge of power wagons.
Cook served on the Kempner City Council from the time the city incorporated in 1997 until May 2014, when he became mayor of Kempner for one year.
He was preceded in death by his wife on Sept. 3, 2020.
Survivors include his sons Charles Cook of Kempner and Steve Cook of Lampasas County; sister Nancy Frechette (Ray) of Rhode Island; cousin Sherry Wycoff of Dayton, Ohio; and his grandchildren Alette, Scooter and Duncan Cook.
Donations in his memory may be made to the Disabled American Veterans organization.