Marlow Cook
Marlow Webster Cook (born
July 27,
1926 in
Akron,
Erie County, New York) is a former
Republican United States Senator from
Kentucky.
In
1962, as County Judge-Executive of
Jefferson County, Kentucky, Cook was partially responsible for the county's $34,000 purchase of the decrepit steamboat Avalon at public auction in
Cincinnati, Ohio. Though auctioned as little more than scrap material, upon refurbishment the boat was rechristened the
Belle of Louisville, and still (as of 2006) carries passengers yearly as one of the most recognizable symbols of the city of
Louisville, Kentucky. At the time,
Interstate 64 was being constructed along the city's waterfront, and Cook's purchase of the steamboat was intended as a measure to bring attention to the city's historic cobblestone
wharf. A politically motivated taxpayer suit was brought by local lawyer Daniel Boone because of the county's expenditure of such an "outrageous sum" for a dilapidated "throwback to the dark ages of transportation," in Alan Bates' memorable phrase. According to Cook, the expenditure worked out to something like 6 cents per taxpayer (a negligible sum even by the standards of the day), and when individual citizens complained, he would simply pay them off with pennies from a jar he kept in his office desk for the purpose. In a
1989 interview, Cook said that some people insisted on checks and although he wrote several such six-cent checks, none of them were ever cashed.
Cook served with distinction in the
United States Navy, was a lawyer, a judge, and a member of the
Kentucky House of Representatives. He was elected to the U. S. Senate in
1968 to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of
Thruston B. Morton. Cook was defeated in his 1974 bid for reelection by the
Governor,
Democrat Wendell Ford.
He is now retired and resides in
Sarasota, Florida. In a fiery op-ed, he announced his support for Democrat
John Kerry in the
2004 presidential election.
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Congressional biography
