Geraldine Elkins Cook Collection

by Glenda Stone

Geraldine Elkins Cook was born July 26, 1921 in Duffau, Erath County, Texas, to William Dale and Audrey Hollis Elkins. Geri graduated from Hico High School and from the Harris School of Nursing. She served in the U.S. Air Force Nurse Corp during the Korean conflict. She attended St. Louis University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Texas at Austin. Geri and her husband retired to Granbury in 1976, where he died in 1992. In 1996 she moved to the San Antonio Army residence.

Geri was a charter member of the Elizabeth Crockett Chapter of the DAR and was a member of the Hood County Genealogical Society. Because her roots were in Erath County, she often used the Tarleton Dick Smith Library local history resources. She was a descendant the Elkins and Hollis families, who came to the Duffau area around 1852, as well as the Rogers, Sumerall, McCarty, Duncan and other families.

Geri was a Lifetime member of the Friends of the Dick Smith Library. Before moving to San Antonio Geri donated her files and photographs to the Dick Smith Library so that they would be available to researchers for years to come. Even though she was a Lifetime member of the Friends, she continued to send a generous monetary donation to the Friends each year until her death on January 28, 2007.