FAMILY, FRIENDS PRAISE APPOINTMENT OF COOK

Rebecca McDowell Cook's appointment as Missouri's new secretary of state won universal praise Friday from friends and acquaintances, who described her as intelligent and caring.

"I tell you, I am so tickled to death about my kid," said Jackson resident Ed McClary. "I just shouted when I found out that she got the appointment."

McClary served as a second father to Cook after her father, Eugene McDowell of Jackson, died in a plane crash in 1970 at the age of 47.

"She is just the sweetest little gal," McClary said. "She is very caring about the people she likes."

He added, "She will fight like hell for a cause and there is nothing wrong with that."

McClary, 79, was a good friend of Bekki Cook's father despite their political differences.

"I am a good, staunch Republican and her daddy was a damn fool Democrat. Bekki and I would needle each other about politics, but that was about as far as it went."

McClary said, "I think she will be perfectly honest and will not let politics interfere with what she has to do."

Bekki Cook grew up in Jackson. She graduated in 1968 from Jackson High School, where she was voted as "Most Likely to Succeed."

Former high school principal Jim Nelson said Cook was an intelligent student, active in Student Council and editor of the yearbook.

"She was very well liked," recalled Nelson. She was chosen prom queen her senior year.

"She was involved in everything. She just wasn't a wallflower."

Cape Girardeau lawyer John Oliver Jr. praised the appointment of Cook, 44, one of Cape Girardeau's first women attorneys.

Cook graduated from the University of Missouri Law School in 1975.

She worked for what was then the law firm of Limbaugh, Limbaugh and Russell from 1975-1978.

She then moved on to the Oliver firm, where she was a partner and shareholder for 13 years.

She quit practicing law in January 1993 to devote time to her family.

Oliver said two words describe Cook: intense and intelligent.

Oliver doesn't dwell on Cook's politics. "She obviously is a very liberal Democrat, so what?"

He said, "If you look at what Bekki has done outside of the practice of law and outside of the family, it has all been people oriented."

She has been active in countless civic affairs.

Washington School Principal Barbara Blanchard was elated by the news.

Cook has been active in the school's PTA, having served as the organization's president. Her son, Hunter, who is now in the 8th grade, attended Washington School. Her daughter, Morgan, is in 6th grade at Washington School.

Blanchard said Cook is the type of person who will assist with a chili supper or play day. "She helps tutor kids one on one."

Blanchard said Cook is an energetic parent.

"As busy as Bekki was, I always thought she was almost a super mom," Blanchard said. "She gets out there and rolls up her sleeves and gets down and works with us."

Cook served on the State Board of Education for four years before her new appointment prompted her resignation from the board Friday.

Cook also has served as vice chairman of the Southeast Missouri University Foundation board.

Jackson lawyer John Lichtenegger, a Republican, grew up in the same neighborhood as Cook. He describes her as a wonderful person and great mother.

Although Cook is active in the Missouri Democratic Party, Lichtenegger said Cook is fiercely independent.

"She is not a person who will be taken over by a bureaucracy or an administration. She is very much her own person."

Said Lichtenegger, "I think she is capable of making very tough decisions."

BEKKI COOK AT A GLANCE

Biographical information about Missouri's newly named secretary of state:

NAME: Rebecca McDowell Cook.

AGE: 44.

HOMETOWN: Native of Jackson, Mo.; resides in Cape Girardeau.

FAMILY: Married to Cape Girardeau attorney John Larkin Cook; one son, Hunter L. Cook, and one daughter Morgan E. Cook. Both attend public schools in Cape Girardeau.

EDUCATION: Public schools in Jackson, Mo.; attended Sweet Briar College in Virginia, Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau; bachelor of arts in political science, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1972; Law degree, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, 1975.

BACKGROUND: Private law practice with two Cape Girardeau firms starting in 1975; no longer actively practicing law; Served on The Missouri Bar's Continuing Legal Education Committee and was vice-chair of its Family Law Committee; Helped draft the Bar's proposal, now law, on joint custody; appointed to State Board of Education in 1990 by former Republican Gov. John Ashcroft; reappointed to eight-year term in 1993 by Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan.