--- Jerry Jasper Cooke was the third African American to serve on Rocky Mount’s Board of Commissioners. He was born on June 11, 1860 to Bryant and Dilcy Cooke of Franklin and married Maggie M. Malone, on April 14,1886. The couple moved from Franklin County to the booming town of Rocky Mount during the 1890s Fusion Decade in search of economic opportunity. In 1900, J.J. Cooke was elected Town Commissioner out of Rocky Mount’s 5th ward. The next year Cooke helped organize the Unity Cemetery Association, Inc. He was an original member of the Board of Trustees and he was elected its first president in 1902. He served only one term on the Town Board of Commissioners from May 1900 to May 1901. In 1904 the Cooke’s purchased property on N. Pearl Street near Gay Street. J.J. Cooke was a founding member of the North Carolina Knights of Giedons and an insurance agent for the organization. By 1907 the Cooke family had moved to New Bern, purchasing a home at 181 George Street, and Jerry continued building his insurance business. The Cooke’s quickly became an integral part of the local community. Jerry was ordained a Deacon at the First Colored Baptist Church of New Bern and Maggie sang solos at church and at local celebrations. She also actively supported the New Bern Collegiate Industrial Institution. Cooke died of a cerebral hemorrhage on June 24, 1913 in New Bern, North Carolina and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. In 1915 Maggie Cooke sold her interest in her Pearl Street property in Rocky Mount to her brother Mansfield Malone for $100.00 while her son Sammanna retained his inherited one-half interest. In 1922 a horrific fire swept through New Bern, destroying 1000 buildings and leaving 3000 people homeless, including the Cooke family. Maggie returned to live in Rocky Mount and in 1926 she bought her son’s one-half interest in the property on Pearl Street while Samanna remained in New Bern with his wife and children to rebuild his home and his insurance business.