by Cliff McCarthy, 2015
Updated 2 July 2022
Gram & Pop
Lionel and Evelyn Cooke were more than just my grandparents; they were like a second set of parents for me. Because they lived in the same town as we did, my childhood memories are a scrapbook with their presence on every page. In this short piece, I cannot hope to convey the importance “Gram” and “Pop” played in my life, but I will try to condense what I know of their lives, as well as I can.
Lionel Scarlett Cooke was born at Rossville, on Staten Island, to Alfred L. and Bessie Anne (Scarlett) Cooke on November 6, 1901. He was the second oldest in a large, rambunctious family of six boys and a girl. Lionel, who was called “Bill”, was baptized and confirmed as an adult in the Anglican Church of the Holy Comforter in Annadale.
Evelyn B. Beers
Evelyn Bernadette Beers was born on 9 December 1903 in Rocky Hill, New Jersey to William Henry “Harry” & Bernardette (Martin) Beers. Evelyn was baptized at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Rocky Hill on 26 June 1904. The family moved during her childhood to South Amboy, N.J. and then, to Tottenville, on Staten Island, N.Y.
As a young adult, Evelyn demonstrated a very civic-minded personality. During World War I, for example, she arranged to sell home-made candies at the local theater in Tottenville to raise money for the Red Cross. Newspapers reported that she raised $11 to contribute. In 1919, she received an award from the War Camp Community Service organization for her involvement with that group.
Lionel and Evelyn were married on 7 November 1922. They had two daughters, Evelyn Claire, born in 1929, and Shirley Ann, born December 3, 1934.
Lionel S. Cooke
Lionel and his brother Alfred were licensed electricians. Alfred made a shrewd decision and became a partner in a small electric company called Lorsen Electric, which won the contract to electrify the street lights in New York City. It eventually yielded Alfred Cooke a small fortune. Lionel worked as an electrician for most of his life, preferring not to work for his brother’s company, but doing so occasionally as circumstances dictated.
Sometime before 1930, “Bill” and Evelyn purchased a stucco house at 179 Burbank Avenue in New Dorp, Staten Island, N.Y., where they were enumerated in the 1930 census. But during the Depression, they rented this house to make the mortgage payments, and lived in the large, Cooke family farmhouse in Annadale. As a member of the electrical worker’s union, Bill was able to work some, and apparently, they managed to “sock” some money away. As the country recovered from the Depression and entered World War II, Bill and Evelyn purchased another house on Burbank Avenue, next door to the stucco house they owned. They lived in the stucco house while they renovated number 183 Burbank Avenue. Their daughter Shirley remembers, as a little girl, watching her parents working on the house next door through her window at night. After it was renovated, Bill, Evelyn, and their children moved into 183 Burbank and rented the stucco house. Years later, Lionel’s brother Roy purchased the stucco house and moved into it with his family.
Evelyn (Beers) Cooke at 183 Burbank Ave., New Dorp, NY
During World War II, Lionel was enrolled in the Coast Guard Reserve. He was honorably discharged on January 12, 1945.
In 1946, Lionel’s brother Andrew lost his wife and one child in a tragic automobile accident, which left him inconsolable, and the family decided a change of scenery was needed. Brothers Alfred, Andrew, and Lionel became partners in an inn and fishing station called “Anchor Inn” at Mattituck on Long Island, NY. Daughter Shirley tells of the long trip to Mattituck with her mother, her sister, a canary, and their dog Scrappy in their 1934 Plymouth. The seemingly endless ride out Sunrise Highway was complicated by a flat tire. The car, of course, was loaded down with household objects which had to be moved in order to reach the spare.
Once at Mattituck, they set up operation at Anchor Inn: Andrew became the bartender, Lionel did the outside work, and Evelyn was the cook. Alfred was a “not-so-silent, silent partner.” Uncle Andrew first lived in an apartment above Anchor Inn, and then, after marrying again, he and his second wife moved into a house across the street.
Scrappy
Shirley remembers these years with great fondness. She and her parents lived on Springville Road in Mattituck. Her sister Evelyn was away at college in Milwaukee, but they had Scrappy, the legendary mongrel that has figured into so many family stories. Pop always had a great love for children and animals, a legacy that he passed on to Shirley.
But there was dissension among the partners of Anchor Inn. Having learned the business at Anchor Inn, Bill and Evelyn wanted to try their hand with their own place. They envisioned a resort-type inn. Around 1950, they purchased a large house on 26 acres of undeveloped land in Hampton Bays on the south shore of Long Island. The large place had three stories with a winding staircase, four fireplaces, a screened porch, a four-car garage with a separate apartment, a boathouse, and a wooded path leading down to its own beach. They called the place Shirlyn Acres. Again, Lionel did the outside work, Evelyn cooked, Shirley waited tables when she wasn’t in high school, and they employed an African-American woman named Mabel as a maid.
House at Shirlyn Acres
Unfortunately, they never quite saw the success they dreamed of. Although the Hamptons were a popular resort area, they couldn’t stick with the business long enough to make it work. After two seasons, Shirley went to college and Lionel and Evelyn sold out to a land development company which promptly sub-divided the property. Today, about two-dozen high-priced houses have been built on the land that was Shirlyn Acres.
Bill and Evelyn moved to Manhattan for a short time, where Bill went back to work for Lorsen Electric and Evelyn worked as telephone operator. Soon, in about 1953, they were able to purchase a house in the suburban Long Island neighborhood of Massapequa, at 602 Forest Avenue.
By this time, daughter Evelyn was married to Alroy Schultz and they lived for a time in Baltimore, Maryland, where Alroy was employed as an electrical engineer at Westinghouse Electric Co. In 1954, Shirley wed Walter H. McCarthy and she soon joined him in Hawaii, where he was stationed with the U.S. Army. But eventually, both children returned to Long Island and remained close to their parents. The McCarthys lived in Bellerose, N.Y. for a couple of years before settling in Massapequa. The Schultzes moved to Seaford, N.Y. and Al Schultz went to work for Lorsen Electric.
Sadness struck in 1961, however. Daughter Evelyn Schultz developed breast cancer which quickly spread throughout her body. She succumbed on December 16 of that year, leaving a husband and three children. Shortly thereafter, the Schultz family moved away to Wisconsin.
I spent innumerable weekends at Gram and Pop Cooke’s house in Massapequa, a place that holds some of my most treasured memories — memories of French toast and bacon breakfasts, swimming in their pool, playing Canasta on the breezeway with the adults, and watching “Have Gun, Will Travel” on TV.
In about 1968, after many years in Massapequa, Gram and Pop moved to an apartment on Lakeland Avenue in Oakdale, N.Y. and tried the life of retirees. They longed for warmer climes, however, and in 1970 after a few years in Oakdale, they purchased a small house in Lecanto, Florida. Their time there, in the village of Beverly Hills, was memorable to me for violent thunderstorms, swimming at the river, and their pet skunk.
As they approached the sunset of their lives, however, they felt the strong pull of their family in New York. They returned to Long Island in the late 1970’s, living in apartments in Sayville, Lindenhurst, Massapequa (215 Biltmore Blvd., across the street from the McCarthys), and eventually, in a retirement village in Riverhead, NY. It was there that Evelyn passed away from a heart attack on 6 August 1983.
Pop & Misty
With Evelyn gone, Pop lived for awhile with his daughter in Massapequa, but the many stairs in their house on Biltmore Boulevard became an increasing problem for him. With Shirley’s help, Pop was able to move into nearby Broadlawn Nursing Home in Amityville, N.Y. Shirley was familiar with Broadlawn, having been a frequent visitor there with the children from her Community Nursery School. Sometimes, she brought her Siberian Husky, named Misty, to delight the nursing home residents. Eventually, these visits would encourage Shirley and Misty to form an organization called Love Unlimited which recruited and trained animals and their owners to make nursing home visits. Pop and Misty became famous nationally during the Great American Dog Contest, a promotional event run by Purina. They finished in second place among five finalists.
Sadly, Pop’s health began to slip away. He died on 12 August 1988 at Broadlawn. For me, Gram and Pop were models of good and caring people. They taught me that those qualities have nothing to do with educational achievement or economic attainment. Their quiet ways represented a wonderful contrast to the noisy, competitive environment that was Long Island.
On Thanksgiving after Pop’s death, Shirley wrote a heartfelt tribute to her father:
“Today is our first Thanksgiving without Pop. It is hard to think of the holidays without him. He loved the gathering of the family and was always more than generous with the kids. I can remember as a child how he helped to make the table bigger and believe it or not was always on hand to help get the big, heavy turkey out of the oven for Gram. Of course he always told us how he had shot the turkey himself and carried it home by the neck the night before, even though we all knew it had been purchased days ahead from the butcher.
Somehow it seems harder to accept the holidays without Pop. It forces one to truly face the void that is there when you are left without parents to care for you or to care for. I am sure there will always be a place in our hearts for their memory, especially at the holidays, and that each year, as we sit down to our Thanksgiving dinner we will remember that much of what we are thankful for comes indirectly or even directly from a couple of loving, giving people from our past.”
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Children of Lionel Scarlett “Bill” COOKE & Evelyn Bernadette (Beers) COOKE
LIONEL SCARLETT “BILL” COOKE was born on 6 November 1901 in Rossville, Richmond Co., NY. He died on 12 August 1988 in Amityville, Suffolk Co., NY. He married EVELYN BERNADETTE BEERS on 7 November 1922, daughter of William Henry “Harry” BEERS and Bernardette Marie Claire Veronica MARTIN. She was born on 9 Dec 1903 in Rocky Hill, Somerset Co., NJ. She died on 6 Aug 1983 in Riverhead, Suffolk Co., NY. Lionel Scarlett “Bill” COOKE and Evelyn Bernadette BEERS had the following children:
- EVELYN CLAIR COOKE was born in 1929 in New York State. She died on 16 Dec 1961. She married ALROY EDWARD SCHULTZ about 1949 in St. Andrew’s Church, Richmond, NY, son of Louis F. SCHULTZ and Marie. He was born on 16 Jan 1919 in Wisconsin. He died on 08 Feb 2000.
- SHIRLEY ANN COOKE was born on 03 Dec 1934 in Amboy Rd., Staten Island, NY. She married WALTER HAYDEN MCCARTHY on 19 Sep 1954 in Presbyterian Church, Massapequa, Nassau Co., NY, son of Walter Pearson “Mac” McCARTHY and Mariana MACHEN. He was born on 02 Sep 1932 in Swedish Hospital, Brooklyn, NY.
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SOURCES
- 1880 U.S. Census for Geo. W. Beers
- 1881 British Census for Alfred H.D. Cooke
- 1885 New Jersey State Census for George W. Beers
- 1891 Canadian Census for David Martin
- 1900 U.S. Census for Carrie E. Beers
- 1900 U.S. Census for David Martin
- 1905 New Jersey State Census for Harry W. Beers
- 1910 U.S. Census for Alfred L. Cooke
- 1910 U.S. Census for Harry Beers
- 1915 New York State Census for Alfred Cooke
- 1915 New York State Census for Harry Beers
- 1920 U.S. Census for Alfred L. Cook
- 1920 U.S. Census for Harry Beers
- 1925 New York State Census for Alfred Cooke
- 1925 New York State Census for Harry Beers
- 1930 U.S. Census for Alfred L. Cook
- 1930 U.S. Census for Lionel Cooke
- 1930 U.S. Census for William H. Beers
- 1940 U.S. Census for Bessie Cooke
- 1940 U.S. Census for Edward Cooke
- 1940 U.S. Census for Harry Beers
- 1940 U.S. Census for Lionel Cooke
- 1940 U.S. Census for Roy Cooke
- Application for Social Security Number for Bernadette C. Beers
- Baptismal Certificate for Clifford Allan McCarthy
- Baptismal Certificate for Evelyn Bernatta Beers
- Baptismal Certificate for Lionel S. Cooke, April 17, 1921.
- Baptismal Record of Bernadette Marie Claire Martin
- Baptisms Solemnized in the Parish of Pett
- Burials in New York
- Certificate and Letter of Disenrollment, U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, January 12, 1945.
- Certificate of Confirmation for Lionel S. Cooke, May 5, 1922, Church of the Holy Comforter.
- Certificate of Death for Bernadette Beers
- Certificate of Death for Harry Beers
- Certificate of Death, Evelyn B. Cooke, August 6, 1983, Riverhead, Suffolk County, NY.
- Certificate of Death, Lionel S. Cooke, August 12, 1988, Amityville, Suffolk County, NY.
- Certificate of Marriage for Alfred Lionel Cooke and Elizabeth Ann Scarlett
- Cooke Family Tree, John & Rosemary Moon
- “Cooke Infant Dies”
- Correspondence of Rosemary Moon
- Florida Death Index, 1990-91
- Gravestone of Bernadette Beers
- Gravestone of William H. Beers
- “Injuries Fatal to Daughter After Mother Killed in Auto Accident; Sister Uninjured”
- Letter to the author from Shirley McCarthy, Thanksgiving 1988.
- Mass Card from Funeral of Bernadette Beers
- “Mother Killed, 2 Children in Baby Carriage, Hurt By Car”
- New York City Births, 1891-1902
- New York, Marriage Index, 1866-1937
- New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 for Herbert Davis Cooke
- Notes from Interview with Herbert Sherwood Cooke
- Passenger Record for Bessie A. Scarlett
- Perth Amboy Evening News, 27 May 1918, p. 4
- Petition for Naturalization for Alfred Cooke
- Recollections of Alfred P. Cooke as told to the author, December 25, 1984 and December 25, 1985.
- Recollections of Evelyn Cooke
- Recollections of Shirley Cooke McCarthy as told to the author, December 25, 1985.
- Recollections of the author.
- Return of Marriage for William Henry Beers & Bernatta Vironica Martin
- Newspaper Obituary & Death Notice for Carol A. Schwamberger
- Ship’s Manifest for the Furnessia
- Social Security Death Index
- “Tottenville,” Perth Amboy Evening News, 21 May 1918
- Two letters from Evelyn B. Cooke to the author, one dated September 8, 1974 and the other date unknown.
- U.S. Social Security Applications and Claim Index, 1936-2007
- “W.C.C.S. Honors Girl Workers,” Perth Amboy Evening News, 28 June 1919
- Wedding Announcement for McCarthy & Cooke
- World War I Draft Registration Card for Alfred Phinehas Cooke
- World War I Draft Registration for Harry Beers
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