Charles W. Cookie Cookson

Charles W. “Cookie” Cookson, age 92, founder and publisher emeritus of The American Oil Gas Reporter, died peacefully on Friday, July 17, 2015. Rosary is Monday, July 20th at 7:30 PM and Mass of Christian Burial is Tuesday, July 21st at 10:30 AM, both at Saint Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Wichita. Born on August 13, 1922 to Ellis and Marie Cookson, he was united in marriage to Margaret Joyce Wedel at Blessed Sacrament on May 7, 1949. Their union was blessed with six children. Widely known throughout the nations oil and gas industry as “Cookie”, he lived his entire life in Wichita. Cookson wrote high school sports for both the Wichita Beacon and the Wichita Eagle while attending North High in the late 30s and graduated from the University of Wichita with a degree in journalism in 1946. He served in the military from 1943 to 1946, earning a bronze star during combat in Europe as a liaison officer, and was discharged with the rank of Captain after serving as a regimental adjutant in the army of occupation. Cookson was executive-secretary of the National Baseball Congress in the late forties and fifties. Together with his wife, Joyce, he founded The American Oil and Gas Reporter in 1958. On April 16, 2010 he was inducted into the Butler County History Center and Kansas Oil Museums Legacy Gallery. Among other laymens duties performed in the Catholic Church, he served as president of the Wichita Deanery Council of Catholic men, and later as president of the Wichita Diocesan Council for the same organization in the early seventies. Cookson was also a member of the American Legion and VFW. He and Joyce were parishioners at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church for over fifty years and then most recently at St Catherine of Siena. He was preceded in death by his parents; infant son, Joseph M. Cookson; brothers, George W. Cookson and Raymond T. Cookson. He is survived by his wife, Margaret Joyce Cookson; daughters, Lucia Biehler (Jim) and Anne Oxler (Doug); sons, Charles Cookson (Yvonne), John Cookson (Lisa), and Michael Cookson (Lynn); nineteen grandchildren and twenty-two great-grandchildren; brother, Joseph Cookson, and numerous nieces and nephews. Memorials have been established with St Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, 3636 N. Ridge Rd, Wichita KS 67205 and Guadalupe Clinic, 940 S. St Francis, Wichita KS 67211. The family extends sincere thanks to the wonderful staffs at The Oxford Grand Memory Care and Good Shepherd Hospice for their loving care during Cookies final days. Downing Lahey Mortuary West.