Howard Elliott Cook

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HOWARD, LOST BOY, WE KNOW YOU AS OUR LAD by Richard Baldwin Cook (copyright 2010)

Howard, Lost Boy, we know you as our lad. Born to Drucy and old J F in '05. She sacrificed for you; was only glad To do all in her power that you thrive.

Sent you cruising to Europe and to Brown. Returned with soaring spirits, future bright. Gay ways for you secured a cap and gown. Embraced by private friends both day and night.

Happy Twenties led to Thirties and the Fall. You were caught, little birdie on a spit. Still you fluttered, wrote poems, acted tall. L.A., Hawaii, Wake Island seemed a fit.

The War did what the Great Crash could not do. Four years prisoner in China finished you.

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Howard Elliot Cook was the only child of Joshua Flood Cook (1834-1912) and Joshua's third wife, Drusilla Margaret Hirons Cook (1869-1962). Howard was born at Baptist Hospital in St Louis, MO, May 15, 1905. He was named to honor the friendship between his father and Howard Elliott (1860-1928), president of the Hannibal and St Joe railroad, later head of the Northern Pacific and then the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroads.

His father, the Rev. J.F. Cook, was proud of Howard's early-developed religious sensibilities, which J.F. encouraged. In 1912, Joshua wrote to his son Cecil, also a prominent Baptist Minister, and mentioned little Howard, then seven years old:

"Dear little Howard and I have a prayer service every night. - he prays sweetly 'for all our dear ones' often by name - 'for forgiveness of sins - to be kept from sin and that in the ‘sweet by and by' we may meet on the beautiful shore' - I am doing my best to direct him heavenward - sometimes, often he closes – ‘may we light in that beautiful world at last.'"

After the death of his father in 1912 and before 1920, Howard and his mother Drusilla moved to Perinton, Monroe County, New York. In nearby Freeport, NY, Drucilla operated a Baptist home for women.

Howard attended Brown University, Providence, RI, graduating in 1929. At Brown, Howard was the class poet ("odist"), was in theatrical activities and a member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity. After college, Howard worked in guest services at the famous Coronado Hotel in southern California. For two years in the 1930s, Howard was back in Providence, as personal secretary to Natalie Hays Hammond (1904-1985), daughter of millionaire philanthropist John Hays Hammond.

Howard is known to have been in Hawaii in the late 1930s. A civilian employee of the US Military ("Bureau of Yards and Docks"), Howard was working as a librarian in December, 1941, on Wake Island, when the island was invaded by the Japanese army and navy. Howard survived the invasion and was made a Japanese prisoner-of-war. He was confined at Kiawgwan Shanghai 31-121, a camp in Shanghai, China. His imprisonment ended only with the surrender of Japan. Howard spent 3 years and nine months as a Japanese POW.

The Brown University Alumni magazine reported (1945?)

"Howard Elliot Cook, according to word received by his mother, is returning to the States after four long years in the Shang-hai War Prisoners' Camp."

Howard suffered lingering traumatic stress after the Second World War, requiring care the rest of his life. Howard is thought to have lived in Kissimmee, Florida with his mother. However, his California death certificate records Howard's death on Nov 14, 1956, in Los Angeles (Santa Monica).

Both Howard and his mother, Drusilla ("Aunt Drusy" to the extended family) are buried beside Joshua Flood Cook in Riverview Cemetery in LaGrange, Missouri.

Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they sound the fife lowly? Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered ye down? Did the bugle sing Last Post and chorus? Did the pipes play the Fleurs o' the Forest?

From "The Green Fields of France" Eric Bogle (1975)

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 16 2017, 2:48:11 UTC