Soap Creek Valley · Monograph #12 · 29 of 32
Senior in Review
Senior in Review of Wanda Marcks Cook — printed p. 82. Every printed page has its own permanent link.
Zybach, Bob and Kevin Sherer 1995. Wanda Marcks Cook. The Story of the Sulphur Springs Stock Ranch, Benton County, Oregon: 1904-1939. Soap Creek Valley History Project, Monograph #12. Oregon State University Research Forests and College of Forestry, Corvallis, Oregon: 100 pp.
p. 47 = printed page 47 of the original book; the link on each page number is a permanent address you can send to anyone.
Provenance
- Narrator
- Wanda Marcks Cook, Roy Cook, and Evelyn Weigel
- Printed pages
- p. 82
- Original
- http://www.nwmapsco.com/ZybachB/Oral_Histories/Soap_Creek_Valley/12_Cook/Zybach-Sherer_1995.pdf
- Accessioned
- From Bob Zybach’s upload, 23 August 2026
Senior in Review
The following article appeared in the Rose Center for Seniors newsletter, probably in early 1990. Wanda often helped as a volunteer at the nursing home during her later years.
How many of you who are reading this newsletter can boast of being born in an "itty-
bitty" town at the end of the railroad in South Dakota, or of climbing to the summit of Mt. Hood, or better yet of being almost 94 years young? I know of only one - WANDA COOK. Our Wanda has lived a very colorful life filled with fists and has created beauty and happiness wherever she went.
By the time Wanda was nine, the family settled on a farm in the Corvallis area where
she spent the rest of her youth. Because S. Dakota had such sparse vegetation and Wanda had such a love for the land, she remembers with fondness the first blades of grass in the spring, the first violets, and of finding the Meadow Lark's nests in the tall grass. Her new home, Oregon, was always green. Another childhood memory - gathering grain under the grainery and chewing it for gum!
Married at a young age, Wanda had two boys born in Corvallis but raised in
Portland. When she and her young boys moved to the big city, many thing in her life changed. Wanda went to beauty school became a cosmetologist and soon owned her own business on 37th and Yamhill. Her shop reflected her love for nature, boasting of many lovely plants. Reminiscing just a bit, she recalled the time when it was safe to walk anywhere in the city. She and her boys took long walks, often to a mountain to watch the sunrise.
Loving the outdoors, there were many trips to the Mt. Hood area by bus, and the an
additional three mile walk to the Timberline area, watching Timberline being built, climbing Mt. Hood to the summit, finding dry moss and bringing it down (a NO_NO) - but it was worth it since is was real Deer Moss like found in Alaska. During those years, Wanda and her boys also enjoyed horseback riding, would rent horses on the mountain, and spend the day riding.
An avid volunteer, volunteering before it was called volunteering, Wanda worked
very hard with organizations and on committees dedicated to bettering the circumstances in the local nursing homes.
Coming to Rose Center is therapy for Wanda. The center provides companionship
and lots of work caring for plants and working on the various projects.
When asked what she would most want people to know about her, Wanda's reply
was, "My concern and interest in the fair treatment of the elderly in nursing homes."
Regrets? That she didn't write down all of the grandmother stories she heard in her
beauty salon.
Wanda, we want to thank you for the gift of yourself. YOU ARE LOVED AND
How to cite this item
The first line is the citation as it is printed in the original. Use it when you cite the work itself. Use the second when you cite this page.
- As printed
- Zybach, Bob and Kevin Sherer 1995. Wanda Marcks Cook. The Story of the Sulphur Springs Stock Ranch, Benton County, Oregon: 1904-1939. Soap Creek Valley History Project, Monograph #12. Oregon State University Research Forests and College of Forestry, Corvallis, Oregon: 100 pp.
- This page
- Cook 1995. Senior in Review, p. 82. America's School Trust Library, The Zybach Collection. https://schooltrusts.org/collections/zybach/soap-creek/m12-cook/senior-in-review/ (accessed 2026).
- Cite this passage
- Cook 1995, p. 82 — Monograph #12:82
https://schooltrusts.org/collections/zybach/soap-creek/m12-cook/senior-in-review/#p82 Swap 82 for whichever printed page you are quoting: every page number in the margin is its own address.
More on citing this collection: How to cite the Zybach Collection.
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