Sally Cook, 102, of Larksville, Pennsylvania died Wednesday, August 19, 2015 in Tiffany Court, Kingston, PA. Sally was a beautiful, kind, hard working woman with a generous heart.
She was born July 17, 1913 in Larksville, daughter of the late Adalbert and Sophia Kush Stelmack. She was a graduate of Larksville High School. During high school, Sally started taking dance lessons tapping into her natural athletic ability. After graduating, she started performing in local shows and progressed to dancing dinner theaters around New York state. Sally's younger sister, Jean joined her several years later as a sister act and the Laska Sisters, their stage name was born. Sally and Jean delighted audiences around the country with their incredible dance routine, which was a combination of ballet and acrobatics. The sisters played all the major vaudeville theaters and hotels in cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. They performed with famous jazz musicians and orchestras including Benny Goodman.
Following her dancing career Sally married Attorney Ormand Cook of Cranston, RI where she happily settled until his untimely death at an early age. Sally then joined her sister Jean in business and jointly opened B&S Fisheries on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Jean ran the Maryland oyster and clam shucking house, while Sally remained in Rhode Island and ran the New England distribution from her facility in Fall River, MA. Sally and Jean remained business partners for over 50 years before retiring in 2003 and returning to the family homestead in Larksville. She was a member of St. John the Baptist Church, Larksville.
Sally was preceded in death by her husband, Ormand Cook; her brothers, Michael, Frank and Stanley Stelmack; sisters, Anna Glodek, Agnes Toporcer and Jean Stelmack, who passed away November 17, 2010; and brother-in-law, Dr. William Wasnick. She is survived by her sister, Eleanor Wasnick; nephews, Stephen Thorpe and his wife, JoAnne, Dr. John Glodek, and Dr. Robert Wasnick and his wife, Carla; nieces, Carol Domsky and her husband, Howard, and Diane D'Adamo and her husband, John; stepdaughter, Cheryl Dolce; several great-nieces and great-nephews; and close family friends, Anna and Jackson Hendershot.
The funeral will be Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. from the Kopicki Funeral Home, 263 Zerbey Avenue, Kingston, PA with Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 a.m. in St. John the Baptist Church. Interment will be in the parish cemetery, Dallas. Friends may call Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the funeral home.
