Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Audrey “Nell” Cooke Gust died Jan. 24 at age 83. She was born Mar. 29, 1937 to Henry Edward and Audrey White Cooke in Cumberland County.

Nell is survived by a brother, James E. Cooke, Sr. and his wife Janice; two beloved sons, Alaric P. Gust and Alexander M. Gust and grandchildren, Walter Vincent Gust, Savanna J. Gust and Charlotte R. Gust.

She was predeceased by her parents; sisters, Dallys P. Clarke and Margaret C. Garlick and a former spouse Walter P. Gust.

Nell was an honor graduate of Cumberland High School Class of 1955 and she was Miss Cumberland County 1955. She received further education at MCV in nursing and social work, graduating from RPI (VCU) in 1962 with a B.S. in Social Sciences. Following a career in social work in Powhatan, Chesterfield and Fluvanna she retired to a warmer climate in Little River, South Carolina.

By her request there is to be no memorial service and be cremated with her ashes released over the James River near Historic Stearns, where many of her ancestors first entered Cumberland County. She will be deeply missed.

“A charge to keep I have, A God to glorify, a never dying soul to save, and fit it for the sky.”