Floyd Jack Cook

Floyd “Jack” Cook quietly passed away from this life, with family by his side, on April 28, 2025, in Alva, OK, at the age of ninety-eight years and nine months. Jack was born to Harry Lee Cook and Nellie Stella Hines on July 22, 1926, at his grandmother’s house, across the street from President Harry S. Truman’s birthplace, in Lamar, Missouri. Jack was the oldest of eight children and grew up working on his family’s farm. He attended The Rose Branch School through eighth grade, and loved to hunt and fish, whenever he could. After getting home from school he would run through the house grabbing his rifle and try to get back outside, before his mother could give him a list of chores to do. After leaving home at a young age, Jack lived a rough and rowdy life. As a rodeo cowboy he rode bucking bulls and broncs, winning several championships across Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. While rodeoing, he also worked as a pole climber/lineman helping to build electrical transmission lines, across Texas. On September 2, 1961, Jack married Patsy Reese Ball, in Woodward, Oklahoma, and took on the responsibility of helping her raise her young son. To this union three more children were born. For many years Jack worked as a truckdriver. He drove for several different trucking companies. Around 1980, while driving for Groendyke Transport, he transferred and moved to Longview, Texas. After retiring, Jack moved back to Waynoka and continued trucking for himself. During the summers he and his little dog Jerry would pick-up a load of watermelon with some cantaloupe selling them on Fridays, in Woodward near the Cattle Auction Barn. You could find them on Saturdays, near the lake, at Fort Supply. Back then he was known, to some, as Watermelon Jack. In his later years Jack moved to Alva, Oklahoma and lived, nearly fourteen years at Beadles Nursing Home, where he was loved and cared for by several wonderful people. Many of his caregivers treated him like family and Jack made lots of friends there. His onery and gruff personality made him one of their favorites. Jack was known to never complain about anything and remained sharp and as independent as possible right up to the end. Besides his parents, Jack was preceded in death by one son, Tracy Ron; three sisters, Maxine, Nellie, and Goldie Mae; two brothers, Leroy and Little Richard, and one close brother-in-law, Charles Ayers. Jack is survived by two sons, Martin Ball and his wife Arnetta, of Marble Falls, Texas, Kenneth Cook and his wife Amber, of Bluejacket, Oklahoma; two daughters, Opal Crouch, of Mansfield, Missouri and Amanda Whipple and her husband Alan, of Waynoka, Oklahoma; one brother Elmer Ely (Pete) Cook and his wife Linda, of Lowry City, Missouri; one sister, Myrtle Ayers of Blue Springs, Missouri; ten grandchildren, twenty great-grandchildren, and eleven great-great-grandchildren. Graveside services will be held, at the Waynoka Cemetery, on May 17, 2025, at 10:30 am.

Floyd Jack Cook

July 22, 1926 - April 28, 2025