Sarah Johnson Cocke

Sarah Johnson Cocke (née, Johnson; after first marriage, Hagan; after second marriage, Cocke; February 7, 1865 – January 20, 1944) was an American writer and civic leader. She was also active in several women's clubs. Cocke's works of Southern fiction include, Bypaths in Dixie, Master of the Hills, and Old Mammy Tales from Dixie Land. A memoir, A Woman of Distinction: From Hoopskirts to Airplanes, a Remembrance, was published posthumously.

Early life and education

Sarah Cobb Johnson was born in Selma, Alabama, February 7, 1865, but was reared in Atlanta, Georgia. Both of her parents were members of distinguished Southern families. Her father was Dr. John Milton Johnson of Paducah, Kentucky, who served as president of Atlanta Academy of Medicine, as well as chair, department of physiology and pathological anatomy, Atlanta Medical College. Her mother was Mary Willis (nee Cobb) Erwin Johnson, of Athens, Georgia. Her mother was a daughter of John Addison and Sarah Robinson (Rootes) Cobb, and a sister of Howell Cobb, who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives and Secretary of the Treasury. John A. Cobb's mother was Mildred Lewis, a descendant in the sixth generation from Gen. Robert Lewis. In the Lewis line, Cocke was also a descendant of the Warner and Reade families. Through her grandmother, Sarah Robinson Rootes, she was a descendant of the Jacquelin family and also of the distinguished Virginia family of Cary, one of her ancestors in that line being Col. Miles Cary, who was a descendant of William Cary, mayor of Bristol, England, in 1492. She was also a descendant of Ambrose Cobbs and Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb.