Mamie Greta( Cook) Shoeman

My paternal grandmother, Mamie Greta Cook, was born to Charles Campbell Cook and Ivy Elizabeth Mullins on November 29, 1890 near Adel, Iowa.   I know very little about my grandmother's early years. Her mother, Ivy, died from influenza during the winter of 1895 at the age of 32.   Grandma and her sister, Vera, were motherless at very young ages.  My grandmother wasn't even five yet.    I know her mother's death had a profound effect on her for the rest of her life based on comments she would make to me.  Grandma Greta and her sister were sent to live with their maternal grandparents, Gordon and Nancy Jane (Courson) Mullins, until their father remarried in 1897.  Grandpa Cook was married to Mary Ada Longmire and they had 10 children together.   

This is a photo I acquired in the last decade at a Cook Family Reunion.  It was in the possession of the Cook family and unmarked.  The photo is circa 1903.  My grandmother and her sister are pictured with their small three half-siblings.  I "think" the girl on the back right is my grandmother based on the fact the girl in the back middle looks older than her.  Grandma and her sister were a little over two years apart in age.
 
On February 28, 1909 at the age of 18, Grandma Greta married my grandfather, Robert Shoeman in the parlor of her father and stepmother's home in Adel.  The following is a Waukee newspaper account when my grandparents were about to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in 1959.  I remember attending the event with my parents when I was 12 years old.

A Golden Wedding is In The Air
THE ROBERT SHOEMAN'S MARRIED 50 YEARS

On Saturday, February 28, Robert and Greta (Cook) Shoeman will have been married 50 years to the day.  They exchanged vows in the parlor at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Cook, southwest of Waukee.  "That was back in the horse 'n buggy days," the bridegroom of fifty years reminded his missus with a teasing grin.  And the reason they got married on the 28th of February was because it was close to "moving day" so they moved right out to a 100-acre farm where the Jack Martins now live.

"It was a simple little home wedding" brown-eyed Mrs. Shoeman remembered, as she settled pleasantly into an easy chair.  "Robert came into town and got the Christian minister, Rev. Linebeck."  It was Sunday.

The Shoeman's have lived in and arund Waukee for the entire fifty years they have been married.  They are proud of their four children and eight grandchildren.  And they are especially grateful their grandchildren all live nearby where they can visit them often.  Their children are Burton of Scottsdale, Arizona, Gordon, Madrid, Iowa, Martha Gohring, El Cerrito, California, and Mary Schamerhorn, Des Moines.

Mrs. Shoeman, who has naturally curly red hair, enjoys going places, visiting friends and relatives.  Even in the early days of their married life, she laughingly recalls the time when Burton, their first born was fifteen-days old.  With the temperature 15 below zero, they hitched up the bob sleigh, piled high with hay and warm comforters between the sideboards and took off to visit at the home of Mrs. Shoeman's sister, Mrs. Vera Stump and a new niece, Helen Stump (Hunter).  Burton weas born December 7 and Helen December 11.

In their big, roomy two-story frame house are many windows.  The Shoeman's enjoy the changing views.  By looking across the street to the west Robert can see the little Walnut Grove School House (now Ostring's home) where he learned his ABC's.  And although not within sight, but not too far away is the "little red school" (it really wasn't red) where Greta Cook attended school and it is now the home of the Sam McWilliam's.

Still a farmer at heart - although retired, Robert Shoeman says "I sorta farm yet - on the corner."  He can't keep out of the field or resist helping pick corn.  He enjoys the view of farm land east of their home which belongs to the Shoeman's but is farmed by a tennant.  Mr. Shoeman worked in the Schuler mine from 1936 to 1949; has worked in the Co-op Farm Store and still works there extra.

As members of the Christian Church in Waukee, the Shoeman's are active in church affairs.  For hobbies Mr. Shoeman enjoys reading and likes to putter around the house painting and carpentering.  Mrs. Shoeman states she merely enjoys being a housewife for a hobby - "I enjoy housework and keeping my house up."  She also likes to paint a little around home.

However, the team of Robert and Greta has a hobby they especially enjoy together - being baseball fans, they never miss a chance attending a baseball game.  They were always on hand last season rooting for their favorite player; grandson, Michael Schamerhorn 14, who played on a Babe Ruth team.

Mr. and Mrs. Shoeman aren't planning any special observance on their Golden Wedding day since their family can't all be together at this time - "Maybe on our 60th," Robert Shoeman promised.  And we are sure with their wholesome philosophy of life they will be around to celebrate in another ten years....."we strive to keep happy - and do better each day."

This was the photo taken to observe the 50th wedding anniversary of my grandparents on February 28, 1959.

Grandma passed away on May 7, 1978 at the age of 87 and is buried beside my grandfather at Waukee Cemetery south of Waukee, Iowa.