Memorable nobodies

My mother-in-law beats your Martian hands down.

Among the various reasons I've spent twelve+ years researching people who died in the 1903 Chicago Theater fire in Chicago is my discovery that nobodies are oftentimes more interesting than somebodies. 

Genealogy enthusiasts, doctors, nurses, ministers, teachers and others in the helping professions learn this early on but the recognition came to me a few years ago when my search for online references to my late father- and mother-in-law turned up nothing but genealogical data.  How could it be that such extraordinary people left so few footprints?

The answer is that they were private people who eschewed publicity.  Had they robbed a bank or built one, they'd have left a history trail in the form of media references.  In the process, however, they might have slipped over into the land of Martians (aka outliers).

Known to others as Bill Cooke and to family as "Skinny," William W. Cooke played college football in Louisiana, served as an army cook

Extraordinary nobodies: Bill and Helen Cooke

near the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, for thirty-five years worked as a journalist reporting news in Elkhart, Indiana and in retirement worked as a substitute teacher.  He sometimes liked to watch two televised ballgames at once, ate ice cream almost every day of his life and didn't have much use for politicians.

Helen Creech Cooke graduated from pharmacy school in the 1930s when female science majors were a rarity.  After raising five children she studied library science, tutored dozens of children and for many years managed the  "Talking Books" program at our local library.  She was the most self-effacing, emotionally mature person I've ever known.  Her decision to wear a boldly printed kaftan to a holiday party one year is my sole recollection of her doing anything whimsical.  Her stoic exterior sometimes obscured a giant heart.  When I grow up I want to be Helen.

Most of us could spend hours talking about our nobodies.  So do it.  Talk loud and write often about the people who reflect who we really are.  Excessive media competition means that Martians are in danger of representing us overmuch in history.  It's up to us to leave behind narratives that help tomorrow's historians distinguish between the outliers and the norm.  I've never known a Miley, Roy Rogers, Trump, Bundy, Dolly, Kenye or Ringo but I've known lots of Bill and Helens.