Vivian Cook

Syracuse/Lyons

Vivian (Moran) Cook, known by so many by her father’s name for her, “Dolly” Cook passed peacefully at home with family on Monday, October 15, 2018.  The oldest daughter of James A. and Susan Amrose Moran, she was born February 14, 1934 in Newark, NY and shared many stories of the Italian immigrant families from Clyde and Lyons she was a part of.  She was by all accounts a good student and helped her parents in their food market on William Street or took care of her little sister while her parents worked the store. 

After high school she briefly worked as a secretary at C.H. Stuart.  While at Roseland Amusement Park, she met Burr Cook, of Orleans, Ontario County who, the story goes, attempted to impress her with his ability to jump over parking meters.  They married on April 29, 1953, and continued marriage for 65 years. She spent the next 20 years raising children in many different households in Central New York as they moved following her husband’s career path.  Her children will tell you she was the best mother, nursing them through trials and illness, singing and reading to them, baking bread, making meals, sewing all their clothes, including those matching flannel pajamas.  When her youngest was 12 she went to work as a medical secretary for Gregorio Mariano, MD, in Newark. In her 17 years there, she loved that she was able to touch so many lives.  She showed her heart so many times, sending her children to deliver anonymous care packages at Christmas time to those she knew were in need.  She was a fixture in the lives of her grandchildren who all lived close in Lyons. 

In the 1990’s she quit work, took care of her aging parents easing their passage, doing crafting and garage sale hunting to fill the time.  She made Victorian dolls, dough ornaments and took up painting.  Throughout her later years she helped to raise a great-grandchild and bought and sold used books on the internet with her daughter, Christine.  If the mark of a life well lived is that no one can step forward at the end of your days with a negative word, then she lived the best life.

She was predeceased by her parents but survived by her husband of 65 years, Burr, Sr.; sister, Donna (Schuldt) Butler; her children, James (Debbie) Cook, Burr Cook, Jr., Christine M. Cook, Esq., and Stephanie (Paul) Jenkins; grandchildren, Shad (Andrea) Cook, Carolyn Cook, Stan (Teisha) Cook, Ben (Sonja) Cook, Sierra (John Aumell) Davis, Alisha (Juston) Emmerich, James Mills, Jeff (Kristen) Jenkins, and Dylan (Liz) Jenkins; great-grandchildren, Tyler, Gwen, Shawn, Andrew, Ethan, Taryn, Alison, Sophia, Haleigh, Ayden, George, Dylan, Samantha, Camron and Jovanna; and two great-great-grandchildren, Izabella and Kaiden.

Calling hours will be Friday, October 19, 2018, from 4-7 p.m., at Weeks-Keysor Funeral Home, 5 Phelps St., Lyons, followed by a service at 7 p.m.  Private burial at Elmwood Cemetery, Lyons.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105, per Vivian’s wishes.

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