Constance E. Cook
| Constance Cook | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 17, 1919 Shaker Heights, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | January 20, 2009 (aged 89) Ithaca, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Alma mater | Cornell University |
Constance E. Cook (August 17, 1919 – January 20, 2009) was an American Republican Party politician who served in the New York State Assembly, where she co-authored a bill signed into law that legalized abortion in New York three years before the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1973 legalized the practice nationwide.
Cook was born on August 17, 1919 as Constance Eberhardt in Shaker Heights, Ohio to Walter and Catherine Sellmann Eberhardt. She grew up in New York City, where she graduated from Hunter College High School. She attended Cornell University, receiving her undergraduate degree in 1941, before being awarded a law degree from Cornell Law School in 1943. She was appointed to serve as Cornell's vice president for land grant affairs, making her the first female vice president in Cornell history.
She worked with a Wall Street law firm for five years after graduating from law school, before returning to Ithaca, where she met and married her husband.
She was hired as a legal assistant to Assemblyman Ray S. Ashbery and ran for his Assembly seat when he retired. She was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1963 to 1974, sitting in the 174th, 175th, 176th, 177th, 178th, 179th and 180th New York State Legislatures. In the Assembly, she was an advocate for the expansion of the State University of New York.
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