Marcia G. Cooke Cause Of Death

American lawyer Marcia G. Cooke reportedly died on January 27, 2023 after battling inoperable cancer. Cooke was 68.

The Miami Herald reported Cooke died in her hometown of Detroit, Michigan with her family. She had returned to the city in recent weeks after struggling for months with inoperable cancer. She was admitted to Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami Beach last summer and underwent surgery after suffering a pulmonary embolism on a trip.

Cooke’s friend, attorney Ron Siegel of Metro Detroit in a Facebook post on Friday said; “I am just devastated beyond words over the loss of my dear friend of 40 years (and Reid’s Godmother) Judge Marcia Gail Cooke”.

“After battling cancer and other illnesses over the last year, and making a valiant effort to travel to Baltimore to, as she vowed, “dance with my Godson at his wedding,” she lost her battle with that goddamn dreaded disease, and I am so grateful that I got to spend time with her yesterday to tell her that I love her and to feel her squeeze my hand to let me know that she knew I was with her. I hope God has plans for her, because he’ll never get anyone better”, Siegel added.

Born October 16, 1954 in Sumter, South Carolina Cooke earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1975 and received a Juris Doctor from Wayne State University Law School in 1977.

Following graduating Cooke became a staff attorney for Neighborhood Legal Services in Michigan from 1978 to 1979. She then served as deputy public defender of the Legal Aid and Defender Association in Michigan from 1979 to 1980.

Between 1980 and 1983, Cooke worked as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Detroit and subsequently work briefly in private practice from 1983 to 1984. From 1984 to 1992, she worked as a federal magistrate judge in Detroit.

In 1992, she went to work for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami as director of professional development and training and later became executive assistant U.S. Attorney.

Cooke served as chief inspector general for the Executive Office of the Governor of Florida under Jeb Bush from 1999 to 2002.

From 2002 to 2004 she was assistant county attorney in Miami-Dade County.

Cooke was appointed to the bench in Miami in 2004 by President George W. Bush and was confirmed by the Senate on May 18, 2004. She was the first Black female federal judge in Florida. She assumed senior status on July 15, 2022.