Biographical Note: Frances Matilda Cook “Cookie” Sanders (September 22, 1912 - August 1, 2006) was the older of two daughters of Fieldon and Blanche Cook. Born in Welch, West Virginia, she came to Georgia in 1930 to study at Wesleyan College and met Mortimer Tharpe Sanders, Jr., the proprietor of Sanders Furniture Company in Monroe. Cookie and Tharpe were married in 1938 and had two children (daughter Alice and son Charles), six grandchildren (Charlotte, Macky, Laine, Tora, Kathryn, and Brian), and two step grandchildren (Gretchen and Heather). Building on her earlier experiences in Girl Scouts in the coal fields of West Virginia and professionally in Kentucky, she was instrumental in developing and sustaining the Girl Scout program in Walton County. Cookie was an active member of the First Baptist Church of Monroe and served as a teacher in the Sunday School for more than 50 years. She was also active on the boards of the Monroe Public Library and the Walker Foundation which provides financial support for the education of local youth. Cookie was involved in many community organizations, with particular interest in the Delphian Literary Club. She played an important role in organizing Sanders family reunions at their family home place in Penfield, Georgia, the home of Billington McCarty Sanders, first president of Mercer College, Tharpe's great-grandfather. [Source:
legacy.com and grandson Macky Alston]
