Cordelia Elizabeth "Betty" Cook was born in Fort Thomas, Campbell County, Kentucky, the middle child of five siblings.
Cordelia Elizabeth Cook was born on March 17, 1919, in Fort Thomas, Campbell County, Kentucky. She was the middle child among five siblings in the Cook family, growing up in a modest Kentucky household during the interwar years.
Little is documented of her earliest childhood, but she would go on to pursue a career in nursing, a path that eventually led her into the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War II. Her Kentucky roots and upbringing in a large family are frequently cited in local and military history accounts as the foundation for the discipline and resilience she would later demonstrate on the front lines in Italy.
Cook's birthdate is occasionally listed as March 7, 1919 in one secondary source (Encyclopedia.com), but the preponderance of independent biographical accounts—including War History Online, USGenWeb Campbell County records, and contemporaneous military history sites—affirm March 17, 1919 as her birth date.
Her early life in Fort Thomas set the stage for a career that would make her one of the most decorated American servicewomen of the Second World War, remembered for her extraordinary courage under fire as a combat nurse.
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