Gertrude Sarah Ann Brown, second child and first daughter of 
Joseph V. and Nancy (Bullard) Brown was born on March 12, 1905 at 
Blue Ridge community, Hamilton County, Texas. Gertrude was a lady of 
medium stature with brown hair and blue eyes. She attended Blue Ridge 
Schools, but graduated from Lillian High School (Tarrant County) in 
1923 where she received a scholarship to Grubb's Vocational School, 
early forerunner of the University of Texas at Arlington. The family 
moved and since Lillian schools only had eleven grades, Gertrude 
attended Mansfield High School and graduated again from the twelfth 
grade in 1924. After High School, Gertrude worked for the telephone 
company in Amarillo, Texas. On June 12, 1937, she married William 
Gerrard Cook, a good-looking fellow of Dutch heritage, in Ft. Worth. 
A daughter and son were born of the union. Gertrude was very health 
conscious and worked at a health food store after her children were 
in school. She was skilled at cooking, and sewing and her landscape 
flower gardens were always beautiful.  She and her husband lived in 
Tucson, Arizona, then Nederland, San Marcos, and Austin, before 
settling in Arlington, Texas about 1952. Gertrude was a Baptist, but 
became a Jehovah Witness sometime in the 1960's while retaining many 
of her Baptist beliefs. She died on March 29, 1997 and is buried in 
Laurel Land Cemetery in Ft. Worth.