FOURTH GENERATION

58. Mary E. FAULK ⁽¹⁾ was born on 7 Nov 1910 in ____, ____ Co., Texas.⁽²⁸⁾ She died on 5 Oct 1996 in Austin, Travis Co., Texas.⁽²⁸⁾ Austin cook, restaurateur Mary Faulk Koock dies
By Kitty Crider

Mary Faulk Koock, the founder of Green Restaurant, died Saturday night at her home in Austin after a stroke. She was 85 years old.
Funeral mass will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday at St. Ignatius Catholic Church, 140 W. Oltorf St.
Koock, who has been called the grande dame of Austin food, leaves not only the landmark Southern-home-turned-restaurant, where peacocks stroll the lawn, but a legacy of food and entertaining that reached well beyond the Texas borders.
In the 1960s she catered barbecues, buffets and sit-down dinners for various heads of state at the LBJ Ranch for President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson. She planned entertainment for Nancy Marcus, wife of Dallas retailer Stanley Marcus. She fed pianist Van Cliburn, who reciprocated with an impromptu concert at the restaurant. She provided the incoming and outgoing Governor's Mansion dinners.
Liz Carpenter, author and former press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson, praised Koock for taking her home and turning it into the nicest restaurant in town, a place where everyone wanted to go for special occasions. "We had the warm hospitality of Mary herself, the beautiful home to be served in and her kids," Carpenter said. "That is the most talented family I know. They are all hams. It's a marvelous, marvelous big family. They have meant everything to Austin ... I think her contribution as a citizen is widespread."
The gracious Southern cook and hostess even impressed New Yorkers.
"How's my friend; Mary Koock?" James Beard, the dean of American cuisine, ask this reporter during an interview in the 1980s.
And until her health faltered in 1992, after a fall that broke two vertebrae, she was so active that her seven children could hardly keep up with her.
The sister of the late storyteller and entertainer John Henry Faulk, Koock is the mother of Ken Koock of Austin, television actor William "Guich'' Koock of San Antonio, Tim Koock of Fredericksburg and Austin; Karen Kuykendall and Martha Koock Ward of Austin; Gretchen O'Boyle of Scranton, Pa. and Judy Strassman of Sacramento, Calif.
''She was a really creative and imaginative cook, and her passion was for parties and entertainment. Her personality was such that people loved for her to take over parties. She loved the role of the queen, the entertainer and the star," said Ken Koock
Mary Koock was born in Austin in 1910, the third of five children of Martha ''Mattie'' Miner and Henry Faulk, an Austin lawyer and former Travis County attorney. As a young woman she taught at Guadalupe School in East Austin, and later worked as a professional Girl Scouts director and a praline candy maker.
In interviews through the years, Koock has said that she never dreamed of running a restaurant -- that it began with 'Kenny's'' third birthday party.
Koock and her husband, Chester, were living in her old family home, a shady eight-acre spread on Live Oak Street. Koock had always loved parties and she and a friend would merge talents for birthday celebrations, entertaining with marionette and puppet shows and spending hours making elaborate refreshments, mostly for their own amusement. Their efforts won the admiration of friends, who asked for help with their own parties.
As the entertainment requests became more elaborate, the Koocks allowed friends to use the family home. Then a Sunday night supper was added to the agenda, followed by other meals, and by 1945, the family home had become Green Pastures Restaurant.
From the beginning, long before Austin restaurants desegregated, Green Pastures was open to people of all races. It became nationally recognized when James Beard included it in his "100 Recipes from 100 of the Greatest Restaurants.''
At the time the only places to have a party in Austin in were the Driskill hotel and one country club. Koock demurred in the past that ''I didn't have any competition.''
She met the culinary challenges so well that when Little, Brown and Co. asked Lady Bird Johnson to recommend someone to write a Texas cookbook, Mary Koock's name was suggested. Frank Dobie endorsed the recommendation and Koock became the author of "The Texas Cookbook'' (1965), a recipe-filled chronicle of the emergence of Green Pastures Restaurant, and food and entertaining in Texas during the middle of this century. (Although the book is out of print, the family says there is talk of reprint it.) Two other books follow: ''Cuisine of the America,'' a collection of recipes from embassies for San Antonio's Hemisfair in 1968, and The Deaf Smith Country Cookbook, a natural foods cookbook she co-authored in 1973.
After a fire at the restaurant in the late 1960s, Koock sold the restaurant to her son Ken and partner Lee Buslett.
She turned her culinary expertise to the food columns for Texas Parade magazine and served as food editor of Texas Star, a Sunday regional magazine. After the magazine went out of business, she spent 10 years as vice president of marketing for Republic Bank South. An active community volunteer, she was listed in Who's Who of American Women, named Woman of the Year by the Austin Women's Symphony League, and given the Austin City Council's Distinguished Service Award.
Notice of Death: Austin American-Statesman, October 7, 1996


Mary Faulk Koock
Mary Faulk Koock, 85, died Saturday evening.
A well-known Austin party-giver, creator of celebrations, arid maker of memorable occasions, she was born in Austin November 7, 1910, She was the third of five children born to Martha "Mattie" Miner, a former Hornsby Bend school teacher, and Judge Henry Faulk, an Austin lawyer and former Travis County Attorney.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Chester Koock; granddaughter, Natasha Koock; and her two brothers, Hamilton Faulk and John Henry Faulk.
She is survived by her seven children, fourteen grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren, as well as by her two sisters, Martha Stansbury and Texana Faulk Conn, and numerous niece and nephews.
The founder of Green Pastures, a nationally known Austin restaurant, Koock was also the author of two cookbooks, including a l965 national best seller; and she co-authored a third cookbook.
While raising a family of seven children, she worked as a kindergarten teacher, a professional girl scout director, and a candy-maker before opening a restaurant in the old Faulk family home in 1946. She parlayed her natural talents as a party-giver into a successful catering business. She catered many parties at the Governor's Mansion and at the LBJ Ranch, as well as many wedding receptions.
Though Austin restaurants would not desegregate until after passage of the public accommodations act some l8 years later, Green Pastures was open to people of all races from its very beginning. After 25 years in the restaurant business, she sold Green Pastures to her eldest son, Ken Koock, and his partner.
Meanwhile, Mary Koock became food editor of Texas Star, a Sunday magazine supplement; and she was a columnist for Texas Parade. She also was a frequent guest lecturer around the state. She later served as vice president in charge of marketing at the Bank of Austin.
She received an honorary doctorate from St. Edward's University in l983, and she was the recipient of the City of Austin's Distinguished Service Award in 1988. The Austin Women's Symphony League named her Woman of the Year in 1992, and she was listed in Who's Who of American Women In 1995 the Mayor and the Austin City Council proclaimed Mary Faulk Koock day and renamed Congress Avenue in her honor.
Her seven children include three sons and four daughters: Ken Koock, Karen Kuykendall, Gretchen O'Boyle, Wm. "Guich" Koock, Tim Koock, Judy Strassman and Martha Koock Ward.
Her fourteen grandchildren include: Kathryn Koock Hillhouse and Molly Koock James; Marshall Kuykendall, Jr., Mary Alice Naiser and Santa Kuykendall; Mary Ursula O'Boyle, Brigid O'Boyle, Christine O'Boyle and Terese O'Boyle; Travis Koock, Dobie Koock and Jenny Bridgwater; Zachary Koock and Maryhill Ward.
Her great-grandchildren include Samuel Maverick Hillhouse, Wylie and Jenny Kuykendall, Haley Naiser, Lance Hoermann and Elise Koock, Hailey and Nikoah Koock.
Those who wish to do so may send a donation to Meals on Wheels, 2222 Rosewood Avenue, 78702; or to the Father Eugene Dore Family Center of St. Ignatius- Church; or to Wild Basin Wilderness Park, 805 S. Capital of Texas Hwy., 78746; or to the Mary Faulk Koock Eldercare Memorial, 4604 Copano Court, 78749.
A wake will be held tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 3125 N. Lamar, 452-8811.
Funeral mass is set for 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, at St. Ignatius Catholic Church, 140 West Oltot. Burial will follow in Oakwood Cemetery.
Obituary: Austin American Statesman, October 7, 1996

Chester KOOCK⁽¹⁾ was born on 12 Mar 1905.⁽³⁶⁾ He died on 21 May 1993 in Austin, Travis Co., Texas.⁽³⁶⁾ Mary E. FAULK and Chester KOOCK had the following children:

91 i. Ken KOOCK⁽¹⁾.
92 ii. William "Guich" KOOCK⁽¹⁾ . A Television actor (among other roles) he played the bumbling Deputy Harley Puckett in the popular TV show "Carter Country" in the late 1970s. His Chief, Roy Mobey, was played by Victor French (Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven, etc.) .
93 iii. Tim KOOCK⁽¹⁾.
+94 iv. Karen KOOCK.
+95 v. Martha KOOCK.
+96 vi. Gretchen KOOCK.
+97 vii. Judy KOOCK.

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