Mary "Cookie" Cook Leavell

Cookie was born the only child to Tom and Daisy Cook in Hollywood, Alabama. She graduated from Gadsden High School and Blue Mountain College where she met her husband, H.B. Leavell.

H.B. was an agriculture teacher at Horn Lake High School before they moved to Tate County. They were first in Greenleaf and Looxahoma where H.B. was principal and Cookie taught 3rd-5th grades. He was later principal and basketball coach at Thyatira and then principal at Coldwater High School for 20 years before his death in 1976. Cookie continued to live in Coldwater until August 2015 when she moved to Providence Assisted Living in Senatobia.

She was a long standing member of First Baptist church in Coldwater where she taught Sunday School for many years and was a member of the choir and Prime Timers. She was a bookkeeper at Coldwater High School and later an office assistant at Northwest Community College in Senatobia where she also worked with students in the GED program. Later she worked at NWCC Desoto Center in a Learning Lab for students who needed extra assistance in classes. After her retirement she enjoyed traveling and organizing bus tours to many states all over the country.

She had two children, five grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. Her daughter Marilyn (Cam) Walker lives in Senatobia and has four children: Leslie (Derrick) Maranto , Lori (Aaron) Johnson, Janey Walker, and Taylor (Candi) Walker. Her son Tommy died of cancer at the age of 22. He and his wife Renee Nutting had one son: Justin (Tammy) Leavell. Her great grandchildren are Walker Maranto, Braden Maranto, Cam Thomas Maranto, Cameron Johnson, Jack Taylor Johnson, Ryleigh Jane Walker, Lexi Leavell, and Olin Leavell. She was a proud grandmother and loved to show their pictures to anyone who would look at them. Memorials may be sent to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or First Baptist Church of Coldwater.

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