Our earth angel, Kathleen Marie Peanut Domingos Cook, age 55, became a full-fledged angel on November 28th, 2016. From the moment her father christened her Peanut on February 24, 1961, she was a force (of joy and goodness) to be reckoned with.
The second daughter of parents Tony and Alice Domingos, Kate grew up with older sister Anna and younger brother Tony as part of an enormous clan of Domingos' and Huycks. Kate attended La Cañada Elementary and graduated Lompoc Senior High School in 1979. Her parents still have the same phone number she memorized in kindergarten. She was a two-time Lompoc Portuguese Princess.
Always the adventurer, Kate drove to the tip of Baja California before the age of cellphones and the Internet. She then moved to Maui where she snorkeled every day and fed frozen peas to the reef fishes. Next, she flew to Europe, arriving "black tan" in Paris to get a pixie cut from a haute couture French salon on the Champs Elysee before heading out on a backpacking adventure.
Kate switched gears from gypsying to the world of launch vehicles, working Delta and Space Shuttle programs at Vandenberg AFB, including supporting the world's first commercial launch, an event which helped to define her life for several years. Launch vehicles were pivotal in launching the Cook family, as she met Hugh Quenten Cook during the development of the Conestoga launch vehicle. Hugh and Kate were married in 1998. They subsequently worked on rockets in Texas, where their son, Hugh Quenten Cook III was born in 2000, as well as in Virginia and Maryland. The Cooks made their way back to California, spending the last nine years in Foothill Ranch in Orange County, where Kate completed a BA in Business Communications at Saddleback College. She thrived in the lovely home she created, performing a job she loved (Technical Writer for Parker Aerospace), and living among an ever-widening circle of old and new friends.
Kate's skills to create, remodel, flip and sustain multiple amazing homes is legendary, but is second to how "at home" one felt in one of Kate's homes.
Known for her kind heart, warmth, generosity, energy, fantastic style, and gracious manner, each person whose life she touched has been deeply enriched by knowing Kate/Peanut.
In addition to Hugh and Quenten, she is survived by her parents Tony and Alice Domingos, sister Anna, brother Tony, about a million first cousins and as many friends.
A visitation is scheduled at Starbuck-Lind Mortuary on Monday, December 5th from 5-8 pm. A funeral service will be held at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, on Tuesday, December 6 at 10 am with a graveside service following. A reception will follow at St. Mary's.
Donations in Kate Cook's memory may be made to The Lompoc Theatre Project, 740 N. H Street, #238, Lompoc, CA 93436.