September 10th, 2025, 5:23pm MDT
Elder Jane R. Cook, Honorary General Authority Seventy, passed away on Monday, September 8th, 2025 at her home in Lehigh, Utah. He was 84 years old.
Elder Cook served as a general authority for over 30 years. He served as 70 presidents from 1975 to 1976, and presided over the Uruguay Paraguay Mission from 1976 to 1977, serving on the departments and duties of many other churches.
When he was younger, he decided, “It doesn’t matter what I wanted, but what the Lord wanted is important.”
At just 12 years old, Elder Cook was a witness to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. As a teenager, he organized a Bible Study Group with other youths in his hometown of Mesa, Arizona, and was able to obtain similar testimony.
Cook, an elder who served as a young adult on the Uruguay Paraguay missions from 1960 to 1963, recalls, “I had experienced the Book of Mormon several times before I was called to my mission.”
“When you know it’s true, you want to live it with all your heart and you have to share it,” Elder Cook said of his love for sharing the gospel (“Elder Jean Raymond Cook”, Ensign, November 1975).
Gene Raymond Cook was born on September 1, 1941 in Leahi, Utah. His parents, Clarence H and Mir Thornton Cook, taught him hard work and love for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“My father was a very trained man and he always wanted to go ahead than what he needed,” Elder Cook recalled. “I learned a lot from him” (“The answer is in the Bible,” Church News, October 18, 1975).
At the age of 11, Elder Cook began delivering newspapers to help pay for his clothes. By the time he was 16, he was an assistant manager in the newspaper’s circulation department.
After his mission, he married Janelle Shrink at Mesa Arizona Temple on November 29, 1963, and attended Arizona State University, where he received his Masters in Business Administration.
He was only 34 years old when he was called to the first council of 70 people in 1975 by Church President Spencer W. Kimball. His four children were 7, 5, 3 and 2 years old at the time. A year later, the 70 first council members were supported by the 70 first retirement ages. As Elder Cook embraced the challenges to serve in Mexico, South America, Europe and more, he and his sister Cook add four more children to the family.
Despite his tight schedule, he “consistently carved out moments for deep and meaningful connections” with each of his eight children, his obituary states.
“I salute my grandparents, parents, especially my wife and my children for making my home the best place in the world. I am not at home, but rather on earth,” he said at the address of the April 1984 General Assembly.
Elder Cook spoke nine times in the general conference. When addressing gatherings of Latter-day Saints, he often testified to his kind and loving Heavenly Father. Even on his darkest day, “I felt the Lord reach out to me, the darkness disbanded, and his personal love filling my soul.
He was survived by his wife Janelle. Their eight children: Troy (Lenny Stubbs), Travis (Ashley Ettonton), Terrell (Cindy Benion), Jenny (Brian Chuson), Holly (Scott Jensen), Jared (Alison Rose), Jason (Sally Lestader), Shelley (Taylor Jensen); numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren. and his brothers: Carol (Chuck Hyatt) and Harvey (Anne Stevens). He is preceded in death by his parents and his brother Ron (Marilyn Freeman).
Viewing will take place on Friday, September 12th, 6-8pm to Saturday, August 13th, from 9:30am to 10:30am at the Lehigh North Stake Center, 650 East 3200 in Northray, Utah.
Funeral services will be held at 11am on Saturday, September 13th at Lehchnorth Stake Centre. Funeral services will be held at Lehigh Cemetery.
