Cookie Kovar (76), passed away June 12, 2020.  Cookie was born in Atchison, KS on October 15, 1943, to Hamilton “Hamp” and Barbara Rolfes Cook.  She was raised in Weston, MO.  After her 1961 graduation from West Platte High School in Weston, she was employed by the defense storage facility in the caves south of Atchison.  She worked for several defense contractors for nearly 40 years before her retirement in the late 1990s.

Those who knew Cookie understand there is absolutely no way to capture her one-in-a-million personality in any obituary. Wonderful, kind, loving, feisty, stubborn as a mule, candid and funny could be used to describe her.  For certain, she was a kind and compassionate person who was generous to a fault.  She helped anyone she thought needed it.

Cookie was a lover of life and pursued many adventures.  She became a licensed pilot in middle age and very much enjoyed being a member of the Ninety-Nines, Inc. International Association of Women Pilots. She volunteered at the Amelia Earhart Birthplace and was a co-founder of the Birthplace docent program.  She also was a Birthplace tour leader and board member.  She jumped from an airplane and learned to ski and was a member of the National Ski Patrol in 1989.

Upon retirement Cookie lived a short time with her daughter on the east coast before pursuing her next adventure as a caretaker for an elderly woman in Connecticut. She traveled extensively and made friends wherever she went.

She would readily tell her friends her greatest accomplishment was raising a daughter to be an independent and capable woman just like herself.  Indeed, she was a loving Mother who never hesitated to offer guidance, whether one liked it or not.

She is survived by her daughter, Carrie Kovar, Ashburn, VA, one brother Jim (Debbie) Cook, Rushville, M0, sisters Barbara Ann Huffman, Stanberry MO and Margaret (Lee) Smith, St. Joseph, MO, numerous nieces and nephews, and by her treasured group of girl friends from West Platte 1961.  She was preceded in death by her parents, Hamp and Barbara Cook, her brother Thomas Cook, sister Georgia Gray, nephew Thomas Cook, Jr., and niece Marguerite Holtz Marion.

A graveside service will be held July 8 at 11:00 am, Sugar Creek Cemetery, Rushville, MO.  All friends are invited to attend.  Memorial contributions in Cookie’s name may be made to the Benedictine Sisters of Mount Saint Scholastica, Maur Hill - Mount Academy, or a charity of the donor’s choice. Final care has been entrusted to the Arensberg-Pruett Funeral Home. Online condolences may be left at www.arensbergpruett.com.