Wednesday, September 24, 1997
Cisco's lively and talkative "retired"
preacher
By Ken Ellsworth / Abilene Reporter-News
CISCO -- If you write a casual column for a newspaper and you
are desperate for material, I have advice:
Pick up the phone and call the Rev. Jasper Cook in Cisco.
You will get more than you can handle.
It does not matter that the Rev. Cook is 82 and is, as he says,
the oldest living male born in Cisco. He is still more than you
can handle, and he is livelier, too. Next to him, teen-agers seem
dormant.
The Rev. Cook talks so fast I doubt that a tape recorder could
capture his words, and he punctuates everything with a dry, funny
cackle.
You do not even need to ask the Rev. Cook any questions to
get answers. The Rev. Cook does not not need comments either.
He just needs a listener. His button is always on, and it has
no off switch.
The Rev. Cook is retired, too, but that information has not
sunk in.
He preaches (United Methodist), paints in oil, writes poetry
that sometimes gets published and for which publishers pay, is
writing a book, does woodwork and is never bored.
"Every day I read the obituaries to see if I'm in there.
But I found out if you keep moving they can't put you in the cemetery,"
he said of his active pace and followed that with his laugh.
The Rev. Cook has been moving fast enough to keep out of cemeteries
all his life.
He was once a comedian who cheered up injured troops in World
War II in a hospital in San Antonio. He's been a musician and
has played 23 different instruments. He once had a country-western
band. He has edited a newspaper. He has laid pipe lines. He has
been a music teacher. He was once a radio announcer. He has been
a construction worker in Alaska, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia. He
was once a municipal judge. He still writes an occasional newspaper
column.
In Algeria, the Rev. Cook fell off of something that was 100
feet high and broke his back. Even that did not slow him.
"That doctor was the best doctor in the world and fixed
me right up," the Rev. Cook said.
"I've done everything," he continued. "And I've
been everywhere in this whole world. I've been to Geneva, too.
That's the prettiest place in the world. Well, not everything,
I haven't done everything. My wife says that the only thing I
haven't been is a barber. But that's OK. I've never wanted to
be a barber," Cook said.
While Cook was staying busy doing and being nearly everything
over the course of his life, he never forgot that he was primarily
a preacher. In fact, he holds a Doctor of Theology from Garret
Theological Seminary.
Do not call him Dr. Cook, though.
"Well you can, but I don't like it," said.
The only place has not preached is Alaska.
"I was too froze up. That cold, it just pinches you right
up, boy," Cook said.
Once Cook worked as trouble shooter for churches that had become
embroiled in internal conflict, as churches sometimes do. One
of the worst situations occurred in Illinois where a preacher
had in anger shot the dog of one of his own church members.
Cook settled that.
Some things were harder to deal with than that, like the time
a large, deceased church member fell out of the bottom of a cheap
casket as it was being carried into the church for the funeral
service.
"We sang a lot and prayed a lot while they went out and
got another casket," Cook said, and added. "They didn't
teach me, you know, how to handle a case like that in the seminary.
But we sure did sing and pray. A whole lot."
I told Cook I needed to hang up.
"Ken, you've got to come out here and see me. I've got
a lot more. I've got some things that will curl your hair. I'm
just full of stuff," the Rev. Cook said.
In a few months I think I will be ready to hear it. Right now,
I need a rest.
This column covers the cities and communities of this part
of West Texas. To contact Ken Ellsworth, call (800) 588-6397 or
(915) 676-6777, or write to P.O. Box 30, Abilene, TX 79604.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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