An Interview with Corinne Cooke

THE STEINBECK REVIEW: What led you to contact us about your memories of meeting John Steinbeck in Monterey, Mrs. Cooke?

CORINNE COOK: I'm retired from the main library of the University of California at Davis, and knew about the Center for Steinbeck Studies. I hope that what I have to tell you could be useful to some future Steinbeck scholar. Also, I'd like to say that since I was known as Corinne Eby for eleven of the twelve years I lived on the Monterey Peninsula and not many people will remember the name of Cooke from my second marriage, I'd prefer you to call me by my first name.

SR: Certainly, Corinne. You have more than one Steinbeck connection, don't you?

CORINNE: Yes, I married Terry Eby, a well-known actor in community theatre, in the Episcopal Church of the Wayfarer in Carmel in 1948. We were divorced a couple of years later. Terry's mother was Grace Scott from Bakersfield, and her uncle was Thomas Scott, district attorney of Kern County. Tom was fond of holding aloft a copy of The Grapes of Wrath and saying "I'm in there," pointing to a page where one of Steinbeck's characters refers to Thomas Scott as that "SOB district attorney" who authorized the tearing down of galvanized shacks of the "Hoovervilles" where the "Okies" lived.

SR: Could you tell us about your recollections of meeting John Steinbeck?

CORINNE: It was around May of 1949. I was pregnant with my first child. John Steinbeck and James Neale came to the Monterey Airport—a small airport where I worked as a secretary-bookkeeper. I was employed by Del Monte Aviation, which was owned by two brothers, Tirey Ford and Byron Ford, plus Robert Clampett, who was a well known golfer. The company was a flight school where a number of men on the GI Bill were coming to get training to fly small airplanes, some hoping to become crop dusters.

SR: How many people did Del Monte Aviation employ?

CORINNE: Two part-time flight instructors and one full-time. Bob Sanchez was full-time, a well-known pilot, and a good one. He had piloted for Lawrence Welk in the Midwest. Bob was the office manager too, as well as the main flight instructor. The company had an office inside the main hangar, set off in a corner. I had my area for work, and there was a counter between that and a larger room, which was used by customers waiting, or for doing business and for talking to the boss. I had worked there for several months.

SR: And one day John Steinbeck just walked through the door?

CORINNE: Well, I had heard he was coming. He had Neale with him, who was African American. Steinbeck apparently had in mind that he wanted to get Neale trained to fly. He was even contemplating buying an airplane. The company had two Cessnas, a Stinson, and an Aeronca aircraft.

SR: What happened then?

CORINNE: Steinbeck and Neale talked to the owners about the lessons, and then they left. Once they had gone, one of the part-time instructors, a guy from Bakersfield, said, "You can't teach a n- - - - r how to fly," and the other part-time instructor agreed. But Bob Sanchez said, "Well, I'll take him on."

Many of the Twin-Engine Cessna T-50S Built for Military Service in WW II Later Became Civilian Aircraft.

SR: And did Neale take lessons from Sanchez?

CORINNE: Yes. Neale was trained two times a week for six weeks in one of the Cessnas. While Neale was taking lessons, Steinbeck sat behind the counter in my office. I remember feeling very unsure of myself. How do you approach a famous author? I was very intimidated, and he appeared big and rough—unapproachable. Eventually I worked up the courage to tell him I had read and owned his Pastures of Heaven. He said, "You bring it in and I'll autograph it." We chatted. He was big and gruff and...