Former Iola resident Martha Keplinger Cook, 82, died Wednesday, March 17, 2010, at her home in Ventura, Calif., with her companion, Duane Rodgers, at her side.
She was born Dec. 7, 1927, in Kansas City, Mo., to Lewis W. and Leta Means Keplinger. She graduated from the University of Kansas, where she met and married Richard Cook, her husband of 53 years. She was a wife, mother and homemaker, supporting her husband’s career in pharmacy and real estate and raising a family as they lived in Iola, Scottsdale and Flagstaff, Ariz., and finally retiring to Ventura.
She was a member of P.E.O., Music Club and Assistance League, was a Girl Scouts and a Cub Scout den mother and member of Pi Beta Phi sorority and Ventura First United Methodist Church.
She had lived at Ventura Marina Village Mobile Home Park for the past 14 years.
She is survived by her daughters, Barbara and her husband, Larry Thomas, Dallas, Texas, and Maribeth Hammond, Oxnard, Calif.; sons, Jim and his wife, Karen, Grand Prairie, Texas, and Rob and and his wife, Debbie, Flagstaff; seven grandchildren, Heather, Bethy, Brian, Scott, Cory, Pamela and Bailey; and a great-granddaughter.
Her husband and two brothers, Robert L. and Donald L. Keplinger, died earlier.
Phoenix Flight in Santa Paula, Calif., will scatter her ashes off the Ventura Coast on the same day as a memorial service, which will be announced at a later date.
Arrangements are under the direction of Ted Mayr Funeral Home and Crematory, 3150 Loma Vista Rd., in Ventura.
Martha Cook
