Nancy Cook (August 26, 1884 – August 16, 1962) was an American suffragist, educator, political organizer, business woman, and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. She, Marion Dickerman and Roosevelt, were co-owners of Val-Kill Industries, the Women's Democratic News, and the Todhunter School. Birth and early life Born in Massena, New York she attended Syracuse University where she was an avid supporter of woman's suffrage and campaigned for protective labor legislation for women. She was graduated with a bachelor's degree in arts in 1912. Career From 1913 to 1918 she taught art and handicrafts to high school students in Fulton, New York. It was here that she met Syracuse classmate Marion Dickerman, who taught history at the high school. These two women become lifelong partners, spending almost their entire adult lives together. Her respect for Woodrow Wilson's vision overcame her strong antiwar sentiments and she and Dickerman both became active in the Red Cross. As Dickerman later recounted, they "really believed this was a war to end wars and make the world safe for democracy." In 1918, they both traveled to London to assist the women-staffed Endell Street Military Hospital and "scrub floors or perform whatever other chores were required." Cook would, with less than two weeks training, begin to make artificial limbs for soldiers that had lost an arm or a leg. Political activist Upon their return from Europe, Dickerson had been asked to run for the state assembly. Although Dickerson had little chance to unseat the incumbent speaker of the assembly, Cook's work in managing Dickerson's campaign did not go unnoticed. Cook, who had never felt teaching to be her element, was delighted when Harriet May Mills, chair of the Women's Division of the New York Democratic Party asked Cook if she would accept the position as executive secretary, a post she would hold for nineteen years. She held an important role in Al Smith and Franklin Roosevelt's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. Cook and Dickerman became frequent guests of the Roosevelts. In 1929 Cook, Dickerman and Eleanor Roosevelt visited Europe together. Val-Kill Industries Franklin encouraged Eleanor Roosevelt to develop land near the Fall Kill Creek as a place that she could promote some of her ideas to provide winter jobs for rural workers and women. The three women, with FDR's encouragement, built Stone Cottage at Val-Kill, on the banks of the Fall Kill creek. Cook and Dickerman made this their