Theresa Cooke was the original recycler.
Toilet tissue rolls, juice can tops, shower curtain rings and berry cartons.
“She would spend days making kits for kids to make something,” said her daughter, Rita Harbaugh. “She did what’s called junk art.”
Folks around south county may
remember Cooke, known as Cookie the Clown, in their classrooms or at birthday parties, where she did her clown act, magic, art and puppetry for 37 years.
She never made money off the kids’ parties, her daughter said. She always took the child a present and spent hours in preparation and delivery.
Theresa M. Cooke died of heart failure Jan. 4 in Edmonds. She was the fifth child of Joseph and Mary Kowalski, born June 23, 1924, in Baltimore, Md.
She had a poor but loving upbringing, she wrote in her typewritten memoirs. Her mother sewed all of her clothes, and her father, her hero, was artistic and carved wood.
Cooke said schooling in her day was about the four Ls — live, love, laugh and learn. They made toys from scraps they found, like old wheels and wood. They played jumprope, marbles and card games. When she danced with soldiers at the USO, they said she looked like the entertainer Ann Miller.
She met Al Cooke on May 28, 1944, got engaged July 2, 1944, and married July 23, 1944. They moved across the country for his work.
“In life I found it’s fun and educational to imagine and have fun,” Cooke said. “I especially love children. But best of all was to become a professional clown known as Cookie.”
Her nickname was in place when she worked as an elevator operator at Children’s Orthopedic Hospital in Seattle. She taught art at St. Thomas More Parish School and Maple Park Elementary School in Lynnwood.
“She made pinecone owls,” said her daughter, Teressa Rice. “She took eyeglasses and put pictures on the frames.”
Cooke, who was Polish, was preceded in death by her parents, her youngest sister, Dolores; her oldest sister, Francis; brother Milton; and husband Albert.
She is survived by her three daughters, Jeanine Oudeans, Rita Harbaugh and Teressa Rice; sister Marge Black; grandchildren Aaron, Carissa, Elliot, Daryl, and Stephen; and her great- grandchildren, Dallas and Hayden.
Her husband was a maintenance supervisor for the Edmonds School District and with his wife owned a janitorial business.
Cooke loved to ice skate, wrote poetry, wore hats, didn’t watch TV and spent more time at family gatherings with the youngsters rather than the adults.
She could be overprotective of her children.
“It all worked out,” Harbaugh said. “We are all self-sufficient.”
Faith was her No. 1 thing, her strength, her daughters said. She worked for decades with a group called The Tea-Timers, which supported charities.
“She loved to swing dance,” Harbaugh said. “She could whistle through her fingers. We had the best childhood.”
Every now and then someone in the family would join in her Cookie the Clown act.
“She was a big spirit,” Rice said.
“Abracadabra, alakazam.”
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451; oharran@heraldnet.com.
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