Thomas F. Cooke

Thomas F. Cooke (c.1863–1941) was an American banker and a City Council member in Los Angeles, California, between 1929 and 1931.

Cooke was born in Center Grove, Iowa, in which state he was a banker and a real-estate broker. In the Spanish–American War of 1898 he earned the rank of captain. He moved to Los Angeles in 1907, and in World War I he served in the Army Quartermaster Corps. He worked for the Pacific Southwest Trust and Savings Bank and for Los Angeles-First National Trust and Savings Bank. In 1927 he completed a trip around the world, on which he carried a "motion-picture outfit" and brought back "many reels of pictures." He was a member of the Hollywood Board of Trade, the forerunner of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Cooke died May 14, 1941, in his home at 10763 Wilkins Avenue, Westwood,^[1] leaving his widow, Nellie Ford Cooke, a son, Edwin; a daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Argue, and a sister, Mrs. Harrison C. Rice. Cremation was at Hollywood Cemetery.^[2][3][4]

Public service

In 1924 Cooke was named Los Angeles County representative "to arrange the encampments under auspices of the Military Training Camps Association."^[5] He was chairman of the 1928 county grand jury, which indicted District Attorney Asa Keyes, later convicted of bribery and sentenced to prison.^[6]

In 1929 he was elected councilman in the 2nd District, which at that time had its east boundary: at Vermont Avenue, its south boundary at Melrose Avenue and its west boundary at Beverly Glen.^[7] He ran for reelection in 1931, when he was living at 1710 North Fairfax Avenue, at the foot of the Hollywood Hills,^[8] but lost to James M. Hyde.

References

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