Virgie Nell (Gaither) Cook

Virgie Nell Cook was born in a farmhouse in Twitty, Texas, to parents Lessie and Reginald Gaither on February 16, 1927. Following her father’s death, when Virgie was 12, her mother moved the family to Shamrock.

Virgie married W R Cook in Shamrock on May 30, 1941. Their one child, Linda, was born in 1943. The family settled in Amarillo in 1947.

Virgie became a department manager at the Fedway Department Store. She later opened her own women’s wear store in a building W R renovated. They expanded the business to several locations. Prior to his death in 1993, Virgie's husband, W R, built the first section of the Bell Hillside Shopping Center. Virgie hired a contractor to finish the project, and she managed the property from an office in the Center for many years.

Virgie is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Linda and Paul Katz of Amarillo; by two granddaughters and their spouses, Chris and Rolando Duarte of Austin, TX., Schelle and Scott Miller of Norman, OK; by four great-grandchildren: Karen and husband Bobby Stafford of San Antonio, Elizabeth Cain, and husband, Robbie Cormier of Brooklyn, NY, and Will and Jack Miller of Norman, Oklahoma; also by two great-grandchildren, Sadie Wren, and Carter Ann Stafford, and by many other loving family members and friends.

In lieu of flowers, Virgie’s family requests that donations be made in her honor to Interim Hospice, 3501 S. Soncy, Suite 134, Amarillo, TX 79119.