Judie got her pilot’s license and then her driver’s license. This surprising detail from Judie’s teen years captures the essence of her one-of-a-kind spirit. She was smart, strong, enormously capable, and adventurous – with just a hint of mischief. These traits served her well as a Navy wife (her husband, John, retired as a Commander in 1980) whether she was charming an Admiral over a game of bridge, helping other wives whose husbands were at sea, or keeping her wits about her during a storm. She had a sharp sense of humor, and was prone to long bouts of riotous laughter, especially with her children. The night before she died, Judie smiled as children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and her boxer, Annie piled onto her bed and told stories long into the night, laughing until they cried. She loved a good slumber party.
Becoming mother to four children was one of Judie’s biggest adventures, especially having grown up an only child. Her father, Bert Newton (Newt) Barber was an executive with the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors, and her mother, Mary Virginia Constance O’Shea Mills (Honey) Barber, had been a harpist with Ran Wilde’s orchestra and played at the opening of the Golden Gate bridge. Her parents retired to Scottsdale, Arizona, and even though they were not used to the chaos of a large family, Judie loved taking the children to visit, where they would ride horses (Judie and her parents were excellent riders) or play endlessly in the pool. On one of those visits, Judie put her Navy Wife skills to the test when over a period of 72 hours, her husband’s ship went aground in a typhoon in Hong Kong, and a tornado hit the house in Scottsdale where she and the children were having dinner. After knowing and calling the right person at the Pentagon to make sure that John was alive and unhurt, Judie battened down the hatches and calmed the children (there were nine from three families). When the tornado had passed, she drove through flooded streets in her VW bus, which was packed with most of those nine children and their gear for two weeks at sleep-away camp. (Reader, they all made it to camp.) Judie logged many miles in a VW bus, having crossed country as the only driver with her four kids and a dog several times. (John always seemed to be deployed when cross country moves were in order.)
Judie also loved taking the kids to visit her mother-in-law, Emily Morse Cook Riley, whom she loved dearly. And although there were no rattle snakes or trail rides in Seneca, South Carolina, there was still plenty of adventure and fun, as they watched thunder storms, learned to bake, or went out in Grandpa’s small power boat on the lake across the street from their house. Judie even taught her eldest how to water ski on one of those visits (because of course she could water ski). Judie and Emily were so close that in Emily’s later years, when she lived with Judie and John in an apartment in their home in Virginia, Judie was usually assumed to be the daughter and John the son-in-law. In her last days, Judie told her daughters that she dreamed that Emily (who died in 1998) was outside in a car and had come to pick her up, telling her it was time to go. We like to think she was taking Judie on her biggest adventure yet.
Judie was a graduate of Kingswood/Cranbrook school, and attended Stevens College and Michigan State University. She is survived by her husband of 62 years, Cdr John Morse Cook, (SC) USN Ret.; children Laurie Montgomery (Greg), Terri Cook, Virginia Gerbasi (Joseph), and John Barber Cook; grandchildren Jason Cook (Rebecca), Patsy Alpino (Justin), Mary Margaret Bradley, Robert Montgomery (Lauren), Kalynn Cook (Ezra Blumenthal), Michael Gerbasi, and Andrew Gerbasi; and seven great-grandchildren, with another on the way.
A service to celebrate her life will be held at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Georgetown, 3240 O St, NW, Washington, DC, on Saturday, July 23, 2022 at 11:00. Judie’s youngest daughter, the Rev. Gini Gerbasi, who is the Rector of St. John’s, Georgetown, will co-officiate her service. The service will be available online for friends and family who cannot travel. Contact the church (www.stjohnsgeorgetown.org) for details. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the Organization for Autism Research (https://www.researchautism.org) or Hospice of the Chesapeake (https://www.hospicechesapeake.org).
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