Cooke, Edith Whitcomb, 1888-1975
Dates
- Existence: 1888-1975
Biography
Edith Whitcomb Cooke was born on August 13, 1888, in Ravenswood, Illinois. Her parents were Calvin Worthington Cooke (a salesman for the America Can Company) and Ida Belle Cooke. Edith Cooke attended Lake View High School in Chicago and enrolled at Northwestern University in 1906. While a student at Northwestern, Cooke was very active in her sorority, the Upsilon (Epsilon Theta) chapter of Delta Delta Delta. She was also in at least one dramatic production on campus, a 1908 production by the Cercle Français of Moliere's Affected Young Ladies. She graduated from Northwestern in 1911 with a B.A. from the College of Liberal Arts.
After graduation she remained in the Chicago area where she would live for the rest of her life. Between 1913 and 1922 she worked for several publishers in Chicago, including Dixon-Rueben Publishing, Hanson-Bellows Publishing and Curtis Publishing Company. A 1939 issue of Tri-Delt's North Star reported that she was active in many civic organizations in Evanston including serving as president of the Service Guild, corresponding secretary of the Woman's Club of Evanston, and corresponding secretary of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She also continued to serve her sorority as president of the Chicago and Upsilon Delta Delta Delta Alliances.
Cooke married Frederick Elmore McCord; the couple had no children. In a 1942 Northwestern Alumni News survey she listed her occupation as housewife. Edith Cooke McCord died in February 1975. Frederick McCord died in December, 1976.