![]() ![]() She held an important role in Al Smith and Franklin Roosevelt's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. Cook, who had never felt teaching to be her element, was delighted when Harriet May Mills, chair of the Women's Division of the New York Democratic Party asked Cook if she would accept the position as executive secretary, a post she would hold for nineteen years. ![]() ![]() Although Dickerson had little chance to unseat the incumbent speaker of the assembly, Cook's work in managing Dickerson's campaign did not go unnoticed. Upon their return from Europe, Dickerson had been asked to run for the state assembly. As Dickerman later recounted, they "really believed this was a war to end wars and make the world safe for democracy." In 1918, they both traveled to London to assist the women-staffed Endell Street Military Hospital and "scrub floors or perform whatever other chores were required." Cook would, with less than two weeks training, begin to make artificial limbs for soldiers that had lost an arm or a leg. Her respect for Woodrow Wilson's vision overcame her strong antiwar sentiments and she and Dickerman both became active in the Red Cross. These two women become lifelong partners, spending almost their entire adult lives together. ![]() It was here that she met Syracuse classmate Marion Dickerman, who taught history at the high school. Eleanor Roosevelt, Marion Dickerman, and Nancy Cook on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada in June 1926įrom 1913 to 1918 she taught art and handicrafts to high school students in Fulton, New York. ![]()
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