Emroy Lois (Woods) Cook was born July 25, 1929 to Sam and Ethel Woods in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her family joined the Great Migration and came to the Ypsilanti area in the 1940s.
Settling in Willow Village, she witnessed the struggle to end school and housing segregation there. Active in many children-related clubs, she married Joseph Cook and together they had nine children. Lois Cook passed away on April 13, 2013.