Debbie Cooke
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Memorial for Deborah Reid Cooke
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Born in Florence, SC on Jul. 21, 1951
Departed on Feb. 5, 2015 and resided in Greenville, SC.
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| Visitation: |
No Visitation
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| Memorial Gathering: |
Sunday, Mar. 8, 2015
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| Cemetery: |
No Burial
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Please click on the links above for locations, times, maps, and directions.
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Debbie Reid Cooke, 63, died Thursday, February 5, 2015. Born in Florence, SC, she was the daughter of the late Sterling Martin and Charles Mather Cooke, Jr. She was a graduate of McClenaghan High School in Florence, Winthrop College and received an M.F.A. from Clemson University.
Debbie experienced the world as only a true artist could. She created adventures from everyday encounters and inspired curiosity in everyone she touched. As a young girl, Debbie used to ride on horseback in her front yard (some unimaginative people thought it was just a juniper bush) or pull out a rickety wooden ladder and climb up on the roof on her house to imagine what the rest of the world looked like. When she got old enough to ride her bike into town, she found her introduction to that world in the Florence Museum, which remained a passion throughout her life.
Debbie's sense of adventure blossomed in her teenage years as she developed a keen interest in photography and other media. Little did she know then that she would turn her love of art into a career as an artist and educator that would span the next fifty years. She inspired her students with her ethic "do the work" through her years as an art teacher at Pickens High School, her extensive work at South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and her most recent years at the Fine Arts Center before retiring in 2011.
Debbie had an exceptional ability to turn a chance encounter into a new avenue of artistic and personal exploration. While working as an educational consultant for the Polaroid Company, she invented a new photography technique called "Polacollage". As an Artist in Residence in Cortona, Italy, she was inspired to use her passion for food to found the South Carolina Convivium of the International Slow Food Movement. Most recently, Debbie heard about the photographic gum printing process at a lecture, and went on to create new artwork using the technique which was featured in the 2013 book "Gum Printing and Other Amazing Contact Printing Processes."
Debbie received awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The South Carolina Arts Commission, the South Carolina Department of Education and the South Carolina Art Education Association. She was selected to be a fellow for the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program in Tokyo. Her artwork has been featured in magazines and publications and showcased in local, state and regional art shows.
Debbie will be most remembered, not for her awards, but for her ability to truly impact those around her. Many students, friends and family members have been steered, perhaps unknowingly, onto the right path through Debbie's unyielding belief that they can be better. People who knew Debbie would say "Because I knew you, I have been changed for good" ("For Good", Wicked, 2005).
Debbie is survived by her sister, Sterling Cooke Odom of Palm Beach Gardens, FL; sister-in-law, Linda Cooke; nieces and nephews, Heather and Brent Cooke, Reid and Jeff Mansell, and Sterling and Jon Lanken; and grandnieces and grandnephews, Gressa Reid Cooke, Nicolas Mather Lanken, Sterling Douglas Lanken, and Miles Rawley Mansell.
In addition to her parents, Debbie was preceded in death by her brother, Charles Mather Cooke, III.
The family wishes to thank Dr. Edenfield and his team at the Greenville Health System Cancer Center for their love and care of our beloved Debbie for the last five years.
Please join us in celebrating the extraordinary life of Debbie Cooke at a memorial gathering, which will be held on Sunday, March 8, 2015, from 4:00-7:00 p.m. at Zen, located at 924 S. Main St., Greenville, SC 29601.
Memorials may be made to the Florence Museum, http://www.florencemuseum.org/, 111 West Cheves St., Florence, S.C. 29501 and to The Fine Arts Center, http://www.fineartscenter.net/, 102 Pine Knoll Dr., Greenville, SC 29609.
Thomas McAfee Funeral Home, Downtown
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