This article appeared in the newspaper in the mid-50s when Glenn Cogswell was judge of the probate and juvenile courts of Shawnee County, Kan.
[Editor’s note: The Daily Capital has invited several judges and law enforcement officers to write articles expressing their opinions on how best to curb drunken driving. This us the second article in the series.]
By Glenn D. Cogswell, Judge, Probate and Juvenile Courts, Shawnee County (Kansas)
As long as history has been recorded, society has had the problem of the excessive drinker. When we combine this age-old problem with the relatively modern problem of safety on our streets and highways, we have the extremely serious and complex problem of drunken driving.
The problem of the drunken driver will not be legislated away. It is easy to fall into the fallacy of thinking that all we must do to solve a problem is to “pass a law.” This fallacy is convenient because it is a means of passing the responsibility on to someone else.
Our first excuse for doing nothing is to blame the legislature for not passing the law and if and when the law is passed, we can always complain that it is not being enforced by the law enforcement officers and the courts.
There are many sincere persons who believe that the punishment for those convicted should be made more severe. By giving the convicted drunken driver a heavy jail sentence or handing him a heavy fine he may be kept out of circulation for the immediate present but I doubt if it has any great general retarding effect.
In my experience as judge of the Court of Topeka, I do not recall a single case where a man was convicted a second time for driving while drunk. This is not to say that no one has ever been convicted a second time but certainly this occurs infrequently.
Thus it would seem that the punishment is severe enough to have a deterring effect on the offender himself. The effect upon the general public is not great because most people do not seem to concern themselves with what happens to others.
Making the punishment more severe may have the opposite from the desired effect. It is a fact well known to the prosecutors and those experienced with criminal jurisprudence that by making the penalty too severe, the chance for a conviction is lessened.
I believe our present law provides for ample punishment. It provides for up to one year imprisonment, a find from $100 to $500 for the first offense along with a mandatory revocation of the driver’s license.
The great success of the English criminal law has often been attributed to the philosophy that it is not the severity but the certainty of punishment that deters others. Under this philosophy the criminal incidence rate in England is much lower than in this country.
If imprisonment in jail is to be the manner of dealing with criminals as it has been for a good long time, then drunken drivers, being criminals, should be imprisoned in jail. The length of time to be served should be left to the trial judge who has all the facts of the offense and the mitigating circumstances.
No law can be enforced as a mathematical equation as A commits B type of crime thereafter sentenced to C type of punishment. An attempt to apply such an equation is an oversimplification and cannot result in just administration of the law. The judges who dispose of cases of drunken driving need more than to be honest and conscientious, they need the support of the community.
It is one thing as a private citizen to say blandly that every drunken driver should be jailed and given severe punishment and quite another to sit as the sentencing magistrate and look down upon the offender who is now quite sober and who looks very human and like the man next door and to see his sad-faced wife and a stair-stepped line of children; to hear his attorney making a plea for leniency and even to hear the prosecuting attorney, who is also human after all, suggest to you that about the only result from imprisonment (sic) this man will be to take him from his family and require the county to support his family for him.
From the judge’s standpoint these cases are not cold statistics but individual persons with families and in individual and unusual circumstances.
All this leads up to these recommendations for the curbing of drunken driving:
1. All offenders should serve some time in jail.
2. The certainty of jail punishment for drunken driving should be publicized.
3. The law enforcement officers and courts should be supported by a great majority of the citizens of the community and the judges should know they are supported.
In order to carry out these three points, a committee or committees might be formed of persons who are interested in this problem to add influence and to spearhead a program of education through campaigns and advertising projects of civic-minded groups, newspapers, radio and television that would help to make everyone fully aware that if he drives under the influence of liquor he is a criminal and since criminals go to jail, he will go to jail.
A good many conscientious citizens as the result of such a program might well stop short of the drink that will impair their driving ability, or think ahead to make arrangements to get home in some other manner than to run the risk of driving while drunk.
Through the efforts of this committee or similar committees, the judges would be kept aware that the community is backing them in their endeavor to administer justice fairly and reasonably and they will be able to overcome the influences for leniency in cases where leniency is not justifiable.
These suggestions are not intended as a solution to the problem. There is no solution. I do believe they constitute a possible line of approach in attempting to curb the serious problem of drunken driving.
'Most Decorative'
This photo appeared in the 1942 Washburn University yearbook when Glenn Cogswell was named "Most Decorative."
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Divorce is Great, Growing Social Problem in Kansas
[Accompanying this article is a picture of two children in front of Judge Cogswell's bench, with the Bible Verse underneath, “’The Fathers Have Eaten a Sour Grape, and the Children's Teeth are Set on Edge.’ Jeremiah 31:29," and below this, the caption, "Children from broken homes frequently appear before Probate Judge Glenn Cogswell.” Ironically, one of the children posing in front of Judge Cogswell’s bench was his own daughter, Carolyn (me). Two years later Judge Cogswell's own marriage and family would be broken by divorce.]
By Robert Townsend of the Daily Capital Staff
The Topeka Daily Capital, Sunday, Aug. 8, 1954
“Now, Mrs. Roe, tell the judge the story of your married life.”
With this advice from her lawyer, a trim, tight-lipped woman in her middle thirties began a detailed account of everything that had happened to her for the last 15 years.
The story was tainted, even saturated, with all the bitterness, hate, antagonism, frustration, and loneliness that can mire itself in human feelings. It was the story of a divorce in the making – the last obtainable goal where recrimination could be complete.
Kansans, who have long prided themselves on strong family ties and bed-rock morality, would do well to consider the question of divorce. It is certainly their biggest social catastrophe.
Consider these reasons why:
According to the Kansas Judicial Council, in the year ending June 30, 1953, there were 9,223 divorce cases filed in the state’s district courts.
Divorce actions have led all other types of cases filed in Kansas courts each year for the past eight years.
Kansas spend millions of dollars each year to support dependent children that come from these broken homes.
On a national level, it is estimated one of every four of today’s marriages will end in divorce. There are now 400,000 granted in the United States each year.
The all-time high for the nation and for Kansas was in 1946. An estimated 610,000 divorces were granted that year, the end result of many hasty wartime marriages. Kansas had 13,476 divorce actions filed in the fiscal year ending July 1, 1946.
The divorce rate in the United States has increased 800 percent since the Civil War and this nation now leads all other nations of the world in divorce.
Shawnee County and Topekans are a frightening example of the little regard placed on marriage and the home today. In the same period mentioned above,1,273 persons got marriage licenses here. During the same time, 760 persons filed divorce actions in the District Court, almost 60 percent of the total who were married!
Of these 760 divorce actions, the following happened: A divorce was granted to 357 women, 98 to husbands, 2 were denied, and 303 were dismissed. Do not be misled by the dismissals. Not all were reconciliations between the couples. Many of the cases later were re-instated in the court and ended in a final decree for the petitioner.
To say the least, the 303 classified as dismissals during that fiscal year meant that something drastic was wrong in the family involved.
Where is the fault? Who is to blame?
Social mysteries are not easily explained. Psychiatrists, judges, juvenile authorities, marriage counselors, and social workers have ample evidence of what is happening but still must deal with intangibles.
Because divorce is a personal, individual thing. It is as good or as bad as the individuals involved. It is a breakdown in human relations with its causes and effects as different as the individuals involved. Therefore, each divorce must be considered separately, because as no two personalities are alike, no two divorces are alike.
Trite formulas and textbook answers about divorce are no more than statistics in prose form with punctuation.
Consider the “other woman” example. Untold thousands of times this excuse has been used to end a marriage. To the uninitiated this can only mean one thing – that a man no longer appreciates his hone and is throwing his family to the four winds in sheer stupidity. Or else he has met a voluptuous siren who is ever on the lure for a happily married man, intent only at wrecking his home.
This is pure bunk. Competent marriage counselors know that a happily married man is no more likely to fall for a slinky blonde than an honest man is to rob a church. When the other woman becomes involved, the husband already is miserably unhappy.
Judge Clayton W. Rose, nationally respected for his work in Domestic Relations Court at Columbus, Ohio, has seen some 40,000 divorce cases in his 18 years on the bench. He has concluded:
“The marriage is already on the rocks when the other woman enters the picture.”
In short, the woman is a symptom, rather than a cause of marital discord. It also has been concluded that in most cases when a man is involved with another woman, hehas no intention of marrying her and will break with her when he feels like it.
What then are the causes of divorce? Psychiatrists and marriage counselors can best give the technical, individually personal reasons but if a generalization can be made, this could be said:
It is the people who refuse to realize that marriages is a growing up process; those who can’t learn that marriage doesn’t have to be perfect; and those who mistakenly believe they get rid of responsibility instead of assuming it when they take their vows.
It is indeed a naïve person who thinks marriage will turn life into a fairyland. Such infatuated couples eventually wake up to find there are even more problems than before and bigger realities. It’s too much for some to take and they hide in divorce, forgetting the problems and realities could also mean more satisfaction in life if faced squarely.
Some also forget that in the merger of two personalities, there is bound to be some sparks and fire, that these sparks, when treated maturely, can be marital strength in the making.
Glenn Cogswell, Shawnee County’s probate judge, who constantly must arbitrate family problems, has another insight to the make-up of a divorce client.
“Fundamentally they are quitters,” he said. “They have a quitter psychology. They refuse to believe that marriage can have problems and then at the first real problem, throw up their hands and quit.
“I have observed that a person who fails in one marriage is likely to fail in a subsequent marriage.
Judge Cogswell has noted, as have many other people think of marriage as something brittle, that it will break with the first strain. They refuse to believe that marriage can be a tough institution, capable of withstanding almost any pressure.
Dr. Eugene Frank, pastor of Topeka’s First Methodist Church, has another insight to the problem.
“Nothing, not even religion,” he said, “has been able to keep up with today’s social pressures. I have noticed that often a successful marriage depends on how much the couple is willing to work at marriage, how willing they are to stand up to the social and economic pressures against them.
“One of these pressures I have observed is the urge to have immediate satisfaction of everything. When a couple is not willing to save, to build for the future, when it has no goals, it no longer has the cement to hold a family together.”
By Robert Townsend of the Daily Capital Staff
The Topeka Daily Capital, Sunday, Aug. 8, 1954
“Now, Mrs. Roe, tell the judge the story of your married life.”
With this advice from her lawyer, a trim, tight-lipped woman in her middle thirties began a detailed account of everything that had happened to her for the last 15 years.
The story was tainted, even saturated, with all the bitterness, hate, antagonism, frustration, and loneliness that can mire itself in human feelings. It was the story of a divorce in the making – the last obtainable goal where recrimination could be complete.
Kansans, who have long prided themselves on strong family ties and bed-rock morality, would do well to consider the question of divorce. It is certainly their biggest social catastrophe.
Consider these reasons why:
According to the Kansas Judicial Council, in the year ending June 30, 1953, there were 9,223 divorce cases filed in the state’s district courts.
Divorce actions have led all other types of cases filed in Kansas courts each year for the past eight years.
Kansas spend millions of dollars each year to support dependent children that come from these broken homes.
On a national level, it is estimated one of every four of today’s marriages will end in divorce. There are now 400,000 granted in the United States each year.
The all-time high for the nation and for Kansas was in 1946. An estimated 610,000 divorces were granted that year, the end result of many hasty wartime marriages. Kansas had 13,476 divorce actions filed in the fiscal year ending July 1, 1946.
The divorce rate in the United States has increased 800 percent since the Civil War and this nation now leads all other nations of the world in divorce.
Shawnee County and Topekans are a frightening example of the little regard placed on marriage and the home today. In the same period mentioned above,1,273 persons got marriage licenses here. During the same time, 760 persons filed divorce actions in the District Court, almost 60 percent of the total who were married!
Of these 760 divorce actions, the following happened: A divorce was granted to 357 women, 98 to husbands, 2 were denied, and 303 were dismissed. Do not be misled by the dismissals. Not all were reconciliations between the couples. Many of the cases later were re-instated in the court and ended in a final decree for the petitioner.
To say the least, the 303 classified as dismissals during that fiscal year meant that something drastic was wrong in the family involved.
Where is the fault? Who is to blame?
Social mysteries are not easily explained. Psychiatrists, judges, juvenile authorities, marriage counselors, and social workers have ample evidence of what is happening but still must deal with intangibles.
Because divorce is a personal, individual thing. It is as good or as bad as the individuals involved. It is a breakdown in human relations with its causes and effects as different as the individuals involved. Therefore, each divorce must be considered separately, because as no two personalities are alike, no two divorces are alike.
Trite formulas and textbook answers about divorce are no more than statistics in prose form with punctuation.
Consider the “other woman” example. Untold thousands of times this excuse has been used to end a marriage. To the uninitiated this can only mean one thing – that a man no longer appreciates his hone and is throwing his family to the four winds in sheer stupidity. Or else he has met a voluptuous siren who is ever on the lure for a happily married man, intent only at wrecking his home.
This is pure bunk. Competent marriage counselors know that a happily married man is no more likely to fall for a slinky blonde than an honest man is to rob a church. When the other woman becomes involved, the husband already is miserably unhappy.
Judge Clayton W. Rose, nationally respected for his work in Domestic Relations Court at Columbus, Ohio, has seen some 40,000 divorce cases in his 18 years on the bench. He has concluded:
“The marriage is already on the rocks when the other woman enters the picture.”
In short, the woman is a symptom, rather than a cause of marital discord. It also has been concluded that in most cases when a man is involved with another woman, hehas no intention of marrying her and will break with her when he feels like it.
What then are the causes of divorce? Psychiatrists and marriage counselors can best give the technical, individually personal reasons but if a generalization can be made, this could be said:
It is the people who refuse to realize that marriages is a growing up process; those who can’t learn that marriage doesn’t have to be perfect; and those who mistakenly believe they get rid of responsibility instead of assuming it when they take their vows.
It is indeed a naïve person who thinks marriage will turn life into a fairyland. Such infatuated couples eventually wake up to find there are even more problems than before and bigger realities. It’s too much for some to take and they hide in divorce, forgetting the problems and realities could also mean more satisfaction in life if faced squarely.
Some also forget that in the merger of two personalities, there is bound to be some sparks and fire, that these sparks, when treated maturely, can be marital strength in the making.
Glenn Cogswell, Shawnee County’s probate judge, who constantly must arbitrate family problems, has another insight to the make-up of a divorce client.
“Fundamentally they are quitters,” he said. “They have a quitter psychology. They refuse to believe that marriage can have problems and then at the first real problem, throw up their hands and quit.
“I have observed that a person who fails in one marriage is likely to fail in a subsequent marriage.
Judge Cogswell has noted, as have many other people think of marriage as something brittle, that it will break with the first strain. They refuse to believe that marriage can be a tough institution, capable of withstanding almost any pressure.
Dr. Eugene Frank, pastor of Topeka’s First Methodist Church, has another insight to the problem.
“Nothing, not even religion,” he said, “has been able to keep up with today’s social pressures. I have noticed that often a successful marriage depends on how much the couple is willing to work at marriage, how willing they are to stand up to the social and economic pressures against them.
“One of these pressures I have observed is the urge to have immediate satisfaction of everything. When a couple is not willing to save, to build for the future, when it has no goals, it no longer has the cement to hold a family together.”
Judge Cogswell Lists Major Points in Rearing Children
It is not “coincidence” without reality, that 85 percent of child delinquency cases come from families without church connections, Judge Glenn Cogswell told members of High Twelve Club at their weekly luncheon at Hotel Jayhawk (Aug. 26, 1953).
Making home and church, combined, the center of family life, he listed as one of five major points in rearing children. Four other “rules” for successful parenthood:
1. Parents should set children a good example.
2. See that their emotional needs – craving for love, affection, understanding, as well as physical needs, are met. “It’s not enough just to feed and clothe them.”
3. Discipline – not too much, but just as certainly not too little, or none at all. Undisciplined children face a tough time in the world into which some day they must emerge on their own.
4. Love your children, and let them know it. “That doesn’t mean pampering them; it does mean just what I said, love them and let them know it and feel it.”
“I know it’s trite and you may feel the expression is overworked,” said Judge Cogswell, “but I feel strongly that most of the time it is parental delinquency, rather than juvenile delinquency, that comes to our attention.
“Neither do I feel that we are rearing a ‘lost generation’ as some pessimists assert. But there has been an increase in delinquency. The national Children’s Bureau reports a 17 percent increase in court cases in the three-year period ending in fiscal year 1951. Of course, there had been an increase of 5 percent in child population in the same period. So there is a problem.”
From his own experience in handling delinquency cases, part of the duty of the probate courts in Kansas, Judge Cogswell reports that about one-third of the cases coming to him are really cases of delinquency; two-thirds are cases of dependency and neglect. The Shawnee County record, past five years: 89 cases in fiscal 1949; 91 in 1950; 56 in 1951; 37 in 1952; 99 in fiscal year ending last June30.
“The fact that official records show Shawnee with only one-eighth as many cases of juvenile delinquency as Sedgwick does not indicate there is that much real difference,” he said. “We handle many cases informally, without bringing them formally into court records. That may account for part of the difference. And there are other factors.”
Making home and church, combined, the center of family life, he listed as one of five major points in rearing children. Four other “rules” for successful parenthood:
1. Parents should set children a good example.
2. See that their emotional needs – craving for love, affection, understanding, as well as physical needs, are met. “It’s not enough just to feed and clothe them.”
3. Discipline – not too much, but just as certainly not too little, or none at all. Undisciplined children face a tough time in the world into which some day they must emerge on their own.
4. Love your children, and let them know it. “That doesn’t mean pampering them; it does mean just what I said, love them and let them know it and feel it.”
“I know it’s trite and you may feel the expression is overworked,” said Judge Cogswell, “but I feel strongly that most of the time it is parental delinquency, rather than juvenile delinquency, that comes to our attention.
“Neither do I feel that we are rearing a ‘lost generation’ as some pessimists assert. But there has been an increase in delinquency. The national Children’s Bureau reports a 17 percent increase in court cases in the three-year period ending in fiscal year 1951. Of course, there had been an increase of 5 percent in child population in the same period. So there is a problem.”
From his own experience in handling delinquency cases, part of the duty of the probate courts in Kansas, Judge Cogswell reports that about one-third of the cases coming to him are really cases of delinquency; two-thirds are cases of dependency and neglect. The Shawnee County record, past five years: 89 cases in fiscal 1949; 91 in 1950; 56 in 1951; 37 in 1952; 99 in fiscal year ending last June30.
“The fact that official records show Shawnee with only one-eighth as many cases of juvenile delinquency as Sedgwick does not indicate there is that much real difference,” he said. “We handle many cases informally, without bringing them formally into court records. That may account for part of the difference. And there are other factors.”
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Help, Not Punishment, Is Goal of Probate Judge
By Peggy Greene
This feature story appeared in the Topeka
For feeling the irregular pulse of life there is no better place than on the bench of the probate court. A probate judge needs to have sympathy, understanding, temperate judgment, a lack of vindictiveness, all bound together, seasoned with a good dash of realism.
That is a pattern into which Glenn D. Cogswell has fitted himself. He has been probate judge since 1950 and before that had served a term as judge of the Court of Topeka – five years that have added insight, knowledge, and valuable experience.
Judge Cogswell was probably the youngest judge in the nation when he was elected to the Court of Topeka at the age of 26. The junior section of “American Bar” advanced a contender who claimed to be the youngest judge sitting on any bench in the United States
Glenn has always been a little ahead of his years. In Kingman County
He is the youngest of the four sons of Mr. And Mrs. Carl Cogswell. The elder Cogswell has been well known for some years for his interest in farming and stock raising, in the Grange, in good riding horses, and the Republican Party. The family moved to Topeka
Glenn’s first jobs were hoeing potatoes and herding cattle, though he gives the credit for the latter to a wise old cow pony the family owned. The horse rounded up straying cattle, nipping them as a dog does. It might be said that the boy went along to keep the pony company.
Glenn graduated from Topeka High School and entered Washburn College
Young Cogswell is basketball material – tall, slim, athletically easy. He is also very good-looking, with thick wavy black hair, nice brown eyes, good features, even dimples when he smiles.
The war interrupted his education and he spent three years in the Navy, attaining the rank of lieutenant (J.G.). He operated on an LST moving supplies across the British channel for the Normandy
While he was stationed in England Glenn met Miss Jeanette Hallewell of Southampton . They were married May 1, 1945, just a week before the European end of the war. Glenn was released from service in December in time to reach home for the white Christmas of that year, and his wife came in February, 1946.
Their home is at 711 Park Lane. They have two children, Carolyn, 6, and David, 4. Mrs. Cogswell’s parents, Mr. And Mrs. Tom Hallewell, now live in Topeka
Glenn went back to Washburn and graduated from the law school in 1947. He opened a law office that summer and remembers that it was “pretty rough the first year.” But he survived, helped by a few jobs that are tossed out to struggling young lawyers.
He was elected to the Court of Topeka in 1948. In 1950 he ran for probate judge and was elected and in 1952 was re-elected without opposition. During these years he has kept up what private practice he has had time for and the last two years he has been associated with Frank Miller, a lawyer of wide experience and distinguished reputation.
Into the probate court come many human problems. In Topeka
In Shawnee County
Cogswell has had the wording of the titles o juvenile cases changed to eliminate any idea of prosecution or punishment. Instead of “versus,” the phrase now used is “in the interest of.” This is characteristic of his attitude that the welfare of the child is the chief objective of the court and it is the court’s duty to help rather than punish.
There was a case in which a mother was cruel to one of her children, a very small girl who had been badly beaten. Judge Cogswell took the child from the woman and placed her in the custody of a relative. An official who had been connected with the case was critical because he had not punished the woman,
Cogswell admitted that in his outrage at the cruelty his impulse had been to strike back at the woman, but his judgment said that the family was the important thing, and he believed that to punish the mother would only injure the other children, who were well treated. For some unknown reason her antagonism was directed toward only the one child.
Work in the juvenile court sometimes leaves Cogswell “downright blue.” He has seen the same children come back again and again and has been assured by psychologists and psychiatrists that they would never change. He has seen children with no moral concepts whatever, with no feeling either for right or wrong.
But there are encouragements. Children have come voluntarily to the court for help. Cogswell believes that for children to seek counsel in the courts shows that the courts are reaching a high development of usefulness. Fully half the juvenile cases are from neglect rather than delinquency.
Adoptions and commitments to state institutions are made through the probate court, which is presumed to decide who is eligible for public help. In a certain instance, Judge Cogswell does not even try to be judicial, and that is when help is asked to help a crippled child. He never turns one down.
Another duty of the probate courts is to administer trusts and wills. Wills often expose raw chunks of human nature.
There is the widow who is sometimes so obviously extravagant that the judge hates to turn over her inheritance to her, knowing it will be wasted in a few years.
There are the relatives who plead for a partial distribution, giving sad reasons why they must have a little money at once. What would they have done, he wonders, if uncle had not died just then?
There is the frail old lady who is taken care of by neighbors and friends through a long and lingering illness, but as soon as she dies, distant relatives stream into town sniffling about how much they loved dear old auntie.
The court tries to carry out the wishes of the testator, and the trouble comes from those who leave no wills. Currently pending is a case of an estate which has 44 relatives in 11 states and Alaska
Sometimes there are weddings at court. A good many of them are of men in the service or of those being married a second time.
Glenn is vice president of the State Probate Judges Association and a member of the National Council of Juvenile Judges. He is first district chairman of the Young Republican clubs and was a delegate last June to the national convention,
He is a member of the Scottish Rite and a Shriner, one of the youngest in the lodge.
He is president of the Topeka Civic Theater and has been a board member for several years. He has helped in various departments and further contributes by taking care of the children while Jeanie does make-up or sketches members of the cast. He does not have much time for leisurely reading, but he especially enjoys philosophy.
The Cogswell children are good riders – Grandpa Cogswell may have seen to that. Carolyn is bold and fearless and David won a blue ribbon at the horse show this summer. He felt belittle that his grandfather led the horse – it was one of the regulations.
After the show a man tried to buy the horse, offering a tempting sum. But one little sentence from David was more powerful than the insistent bids of the trader: “You wouldn’t sell Smokey, would you, Grandpa?”
Cogswell is only in the early chapters of a life that promises to be full and interesting. He is friendly and much liked. At Washburn he was president of his freshman class and was president of the student council when he was a senior.
Two beliefs stand out from his experience: that a lawyer should be careful not to be the judge and that every accused person has the right to be defended in court.
He believes in the dignity of the court, of whatever rank. When he was elected to the court of Topeka, he tried to conduct it so that those who came into it might learn to respect the courts, for he knew that to many people it would be the only court they would ever know and would set their attitude toward all courts.
Sitting in probate court and hearing the tough, the sad, the sometimes hopeless problems of humanity is extending Glenn Cogswell’s sympathies and knowledge. Like a traveler in a strange country, each step brings new insights into that little known world of human behavior.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Eulogy by Daddy's Little Girl
The eulogy for Glenn D. Cogswell (Feb. 1, 1922-Feb. 7, 2011) recited at my dad's funeral, Feb. 12, 2011
"Thank you all for joining in this celebration of the life of the honorable Glenn D. Cogswell, my father, my hero...
How do I find the words to offer a fitting tribute to this wonderful man God gave me for a father except to say I am privileged to call him 'Daddy?'
Whose knees encased me as he read to me "The Three Little Kittens Who Lost Their Mittens,"
On whose shoulder I burped as he pat my little back with his gentle hand,
A hand that gripped the hand of President Eisenhower, Vice-President Nixon, William Allen White, Arthur Capper, Alf Landon, Bob Dole and, undoubtedly, many of you here, with a heartfelt and congenial greeting...
His smile lit up a room, his hugs brought me into the heart of God, and he always made me feel I was Daddy's little girl. He even sang it to me:
'You're the Spirit of Christmas, my star on the tree;
You're the Easter Bunny to Mommy and me.
You're sugar and spice and everything nice,
and you're Daddy's Little Girl.'
He taught me to sing harmony to a song called 'Tell Me Why.'
'Tell me why the stars do shine
Tell my why the ivy twine,
Tell me why the skies are blue
And I will tell you just why I love you.
'Because God made the stars to shine
Because God made the ivy twine
Because God made the skies so blue
Because God made you
That's why I love you.'
In 1992, my father came to Oklahoma to share an accomplishment with me. We were riding in the car, he was driving. All of a sudden, he began to sing,
'Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help, love lifted me,
'Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help, love lifted me...'
And he probably went, 'Bom bom bom bom.'
'Daddy' I said, 'Where did you learn that?'
'Oh,' he said, 'I was saved at a Baptist revival when I was 16,' and I was glad.
Recently, when it became hard for him to form thoughts and communicate them effectively, I was afraid maybe he had forgotten, and, even though I knew God had not forgotten, I was blessed when, this past Christmas Eve, I saw him say 'Jesus' and bow his head.
So, until I see him again, how do I live my life in fitting tribute to this man God gave me to be my father, whom I am privileged to call 'Daddy' and who will inspire me as long as I live?
I have one more story. Even though it was often hard for him to say what he was trying to say, many times I could still sense he was trying to offer counsel and guidance, still wanting to be my Dad.
One time when I was riding the bike at the health club I called him up on my cell phone, and I heard him say these words:
'My little daughter,' he said, in the rich baritone he retained since his youth,
'Sometimes in trouble,
'Sometimes in great things...
'Play it hard.'
And that's what I will do. I did not need an explanation of what those words might mean. A daughter understands.
"Thank you all for joining in this celebration of the life of the honorable Glenn D. Cogswell, my father, my hero...
How do I find the words to offer a fitting tribute to this wonderful man God gave me for a father except to say I am privileged to call him 'Daddy?'
Whose knees encased me as he read to me "The Three Little Kittens Who Lost Their Mittens,"
On whose shoulder I burped as he pat my little back with his gentle hand,
A hand that gripped the hand of President Eisenhower, Vice-President Nixon, William Allen White, Arthur Capper, Alf Landon, Bob Dole and, undoubtedly, many of you here, with a heartfelt and congenial greeting...
His smile lit up a room, his hugs brought me into the heart of God, and he always made me feel I was Daddy's little girl. He even sang it to me:
'You're the Spirit of Christmas, my star on the tree;
You're the Easter Bunny to Mommy and me.
You're sugar and spice and everything nice,
and you're Daddy's Little Girl.'
He taught me to sing harmony to a song called 'Tell Me Why.'
'Tell me why the stars do shine
Tell my why the ivy twine,
Tell me why the skies are blue
And I will tell you just why I love you.
'Because God made the stars to shine
Because God made the ivy twine
Because God made the skies so blue
Because God made you
That's why I love you.'
In 1992, my father came to Oklahoma to share an accomplishment with me. We were riding in the car, he was driving. All of a sudden, he began to sing,
'Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help, love lifted me,
'Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help, love lifted me...'
And he probably went, 'Bom bom bom bom.'
'Daddy' I said, 'Where did you learn that?'
'Oh,' he said, 'I was saved at a Baptist revival when I was 16,' and I was glad.
Recently, when it became hard for him to form thoughts and communicate them effectively, I was afraid maybe he had forgotten, and, even though I knew God had not forgotten, I was blessed when, this past Christmas Eve, I saw him say 'Jesus' and bow his head.
So, until I see him again, how do I live my life in fitting tribute to this man God gave me to be my father, whom I am privileged to call 'Daddy' and who will inspire me as long as I live?
I have one more story. Even though it was often hard for him to say what he was trying to say, many times I could still sense he was trying to offer counsel and guidance, still wanting to be my Dad.
One time when I was riding the bike at the health club I called him up on my cell phone, and I heard him say these words:
'My little daughter,' he said, in the rich baritone he retained since his youth,
'Sometimes in trouble,
'Sometimes in great things...
'Play it hard.'
And that's what I will do. I did not need an explanation of what those words might mean. A daughter understands.
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