Marlow Cook | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Senator fromKentucky | |
| In office December 17, 1968 – December 27, 1974 | |
| Preceded by | Thruston Ballard Morton |
| Succeeded by | Wendell Ford |
| County Judge ofJefferson County | |
| In office January 1, 1962 – December 16, 1968 | |
| Preceded by | B. C. Van Arsdale |
| Succeeded by | E. P. Sawyer |
| Member of theKentucky House of Representatives from the 34th district | |
| In office January 1, 1958 – January 1, 1962 | |
| Preceded by | Henry R. Heyburn |
| Succeeded by | Charles E. Gaines |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Marlow Webster Cook (1926-07-27)July 27, 1926 Akron, New York, U.S. |
| Died | February 4, 2016(2016-02-04) (aged 89) Sarasota, Florida, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 5 |
| Education | University of Louisville (BA,LLB) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Navy |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Marlow Webster Cook (July 27, 1926 – February 4, 2016) was an American politician fromKentucky who served as a member of theUnited States Senate from his appointment in December 1968 to his resignation in December 1974.[1] He was aRockefeller Republican.
He also ran the lobbying firm Cook and Henderson with former Democratic PartyUnited States House of Representatives memberDavid N. Henderson fromNorth Carolina, and the two were the primary political lobbyists for theTobacco Institute in the early 1980s.[2]
Cook was born inAkron, New York, a town inErie County, New York. He moved toLouisville, Kentucky at 17. Also at that age, he joined theUnited States Navy and served on submarines in both theEuropean Theater of Operations, United States Army and Theaters of Operations in thePacific War duringWorld War II. After the war, he enrolled at theUniversity of Louisville and earned aBachelor of Arts degree in 1948 and a law degree in 1950. He practiced law in Louisville until 1957.[3]
Cook was elected to theKentucky House of Representatives in 1957 and again in 1959. He served on a special committee analyzing education in the state and also on a planning committee.[3]
Cook was elected to two terms as Jefferson County Judge, the equivalent of amayor orcounty executive position administering populousJefferson County, which, by the 1960s, was mostly suburbs of Louisville. He was elected in 1961 and, along with fellow RepublicanWilliam Cowger, who became the new mayor of Louisville, Cook unseated theDemocratic Party, which had held both offices for 28 years.[3]
In 1962, Cook was primarily responsible for the county's $34,000 purchase of the decrepit steamboatAvalon atgovernment auction inCincinnati. Auctioned as little more than scrap material, upon refurbishment the boat was now called theBelle of Louisville, and, as of 2025[update], it still carried passengers yearly and was one of the most recognizable symbols of the city. At the time,Interstate 64 was being constructed along the city's waterfront, and Cook's purchase of the steamboat was intended as a measure to bring attention to the city's historiccobblestonewharf.
A politically motivated taxpayer suit was brought by local lawyer Daniel Boone because of the county's expenditure of such an "outrageous sum" for a dilapidated "throwback to the Dark Ages of transportation," in Alan Bates' memorable phrase. According to Cook, the expenditure worked out to roughly six cents per taxpayer, a negligible sum, even at that time, and when individual citizens complained, he would simply pay them off with pennies from a jar that he kept in his office desk for the purpose. In a 1989 interview, Cook said that some people insisted on checks, and he wrote several such six-cent checks, but none of them was ever cashed.
Cook was reelected county judge in 1965 by a wide margin, 121,481 votes to DemocratWilliam B. Stansbury's 71,280.[3]
In1967, Cook ran at the top of a slate of statewide office holders as a candidate forgovernor of Kentucky in the Republicanprimary election. He was narrowly defeated by moreconservativeBarren County, Kentucky JudgeLouie Nunn, who went on to be elected the first Republican governor in Kentucky since 1943. Nunn had also been the party's unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate in 1963 but had narrowly lost to DemocratNed Breathitt. At the time, Kentucky governors could not succeed themselves in office.
In1968, Cook ran for the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of another moderate Republican,Thruston Ballard Morton, a former chairman of theRepublican National Committee. In thegeneral election in whichRichard Nixon carried Kentucky overHubert Humphrey andGeorge Wallace, Cook defeated former state Commerce Commissioner Katherine Peden. He was the firstRoman Catholic to hold statewide office in Kentucky. He was subsequently one of the first Republican U.S. Senate members to call for Nixon to resign during theWatergate scandal.[3]
Cook was defeated in his1974 bid for re-election by GovernorWendell Ford, a popular Democrat. Cook's repeated plea that Ford debate him was seen as highly unusual.[4] Following the election, Cook resigned his seat early, in December, so that Ford could resign and be appointed senator by his successor,Julian Carroll, thus having greater seniority in assuming the office. (Morton had done the same for Cook, in 1968.)
Following his political career, Cook practiced law inWashington, D.C. until 1989, when he retired toSarasota, Florida.[1] In a fiery op-ed, he announced his support for Democratic Party U.S. Senate memberJohn Kerry fromMassachusetts in the2004 United States presidential election: "I have been, and will continue to be, a Republican. But when we as a party send the wrong person to the White HouseGeorge W. Bush, then it is our responsibility to send him home if our nation suffers as a result of his actions."[5]
Some of his former aides went on to congressional careers.Mitch McConnell, later theSenate Minority Leader, was Cook's chief legislative aide from 1968 to 1970,[6] andJohn Yarmuth, then-chair of theUnited States House Committee on the Budget, was an aide to Cook in the 1970s, later becoming a Democrat before running for office.[7]
Cook, however, opposed McConnell in the 1984 campaign. McConnell defeated the incumbent Democratic senator,Walter Dee Huddleston.
In later years, Cook was uncertain about what he considered McConnell's turn to the right. McConnell had helped Cook to advance the unsuccessfulEqual Rights Amendment, but Cook opposed his former aide on several other pieces of legislation, particularly his opposition to theAffordable Care Act.[8]
Cook died on February 4, 2016, in Sarasota, Florida from complications from aheart attack, at age 89.[9][10]
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator from Kentucky (Class 3) 1968,1974 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | United States Senator (Class 3) from Kentucky 1968–1974 Served alongside:John Sherman Cooper,Walter Dee Huddleston | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theSenate Rules Committee 1972–1974 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
