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Frances Addine Cook, great-granddaughter of Gilbert Day(l)ton Cook compile many of the cemetery listings in
the early to mid 1950's with her sister, Lena Mae (Cook) Brignac. She was born on the 19th
of July 1889 and was the seventh child of Gilbert Morris Cook. "Fannie" as she was called never married. She died on the 30th of April 1964 and is buried in the Crystal Springs Cemetery in Copiah Co., MS.
Frances "Fannie" A. Cook, a pioneering conservationist and biologist in Mississippi, was director of the state wildlife museum, now the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, from its inception
in 1933 to 1958. She was a native of Crystal Springs and began her professional career as a schoolteacher in Mississippi, Wyominy and Panama. She pursued graduate studies in Washington, D. C. and
Colorado but did not complete her master's degree thesis. Instead, she returned to Mississippi to champion the cause of conservation, organizing the Mississippi Association for the Conservation of
Wildlife in 1927. Her work lead to the establishment of the first state Game and Fish Commission and the enactment of conservation laws. She supervised a state plant and animal survey in the
1930's funded by the federal Works Progress Administration. She wrote numerous scientific articles and published the acclaimed book: Freshwater Fishes of Mississippi, which remains a valuable
scientific reference. |
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