Vero Beach native, Byron T. Cooksey, 86, died today.  Cooksey retired in May from the law firm Gould Cooksey Fennell, after a long and distinguished career.  A celebration of Mr. Cooksey’s life will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church on Saturday, February 8, 2014 at 1pm.

On the occasion of Mr. Cooksey’s retirement, Inside Vero contributing editor Milt Thomas wrote the following profile.

BY MILT THOMAS

Few people in Vero Beach can say they have met virtually all our town’s historical figures in his life, but ByronT. Cooksey can. The recently retired co-founder of Gould, Cooksey, Fennell law firm has either met them as clients, fellow Rotarians, neighbors or friends, but together they represent the history of Vero Beach: R.D. Carter, who drained the swamp that became Vero Beach; Waldo Sexton; the Guy/Loy families; Redstones; MacWilliams; Barbers; plus many more and probably even some Seminole Indians who used to hang around downtown.

His love of everything Vero and his propensity to collect anything Vero, would earn him a reputation aside from his long and successful career as an attorney. But more about that later. First, his background.

Cooksey was born in 1927 at his family home just west of the old Vero Beach schoolhouse. His father was from Georgia, his mother from Nebraska. Cooksey went through the Vero school system, then attended the University of Florida where he eventually earned his law degree in 1955. He returned to Vero, waiting the required year before taking his bar exam.

“John McCarty, a Ft. Pierce attorney who was the brother of Governor Dan McCarty, asked if I could him out a few weeks because he was way behind.  I ended up staying four years.”

The firm would become known as McCarty Brown Cooksey and Alderman. “Charles Brown was assistant state’s attorney, John went on to become a circuit court judge and Jim Alderman ended up on the Florida Supreme Court.”

Cooksey’s association with the firm ended after he had an automobile accident and decided no more commuting. He moved his practice back to Vero and would never leave town again .

A McAnsh Park neighbor, who was also an attorney, came be his house one day. According to Cooksey, “John Gould asked if I would like to form a partnership. He had been a prosecuting attorney when I was down in Ft. Pierce and I litigated against him. I gained a great deal of respect for John, so we formed our partnership that night at my house.”

John Gould came from Chicago, grew up in Stuart and went to Stetson University, where he met his wife, Jean. He came to Vero after college and worked for the legal firm of Mitchell Smith Mitchell. He went  into practice and was the first attorney on the beach side, with an office in the Breezeway Building at Humiston Park.

“The next night John came by again and said he forgot to tell me he had another young fellow working for him, Darrell Fennell, so there will be three of us if that’s all right with me. I said fine so we formed the firm Gould Cooksey Fennell, I believe it was 1961.”

Another important event in his life occurred a year earlier. “Tom Guy, a pharmacist at Charlie McClure’s Drug Store (Now Jetson’s on the corner of 14^th Avenue and SR60 west), was a lifelong friend. We were both single and on Saturday nights in the summer I would meet him at work. Then we would go down to the Ft. Pierce Inlet and fish. One Saturday evening, a group of new school teachers came into town and stopped by the store. Jackie Parks from Augusta Georgia was one of them and we began dating.”

They married in 1960 and would have three children, Margaret, Byron II, and Elizabeth.

Cooksey and Gould later built a new two story office building on Ocean Drive. “Then Frank Appleby and Gordon Johnson came in to the firm and we needed more space, so we sold the building and took a long term lease on the building we are in now.”

In his spare time, Cooksey started an unusual hobby. “Back in the 1960s, I was involved in a matter with an attorney up in Washington, DC and had to go up and meet with him. I wanted to show him pictures of Vero, so I went around and bought postcards from every story in town. I also took a phone book and information on churches and schools. After the meeting I kept the postcards and that’s how I got started.”

Today, Cooksey is well known around town for his postcard collection, which he keeps in 12 volumes. “I have hundreds of cards, the oldest one from 1911. I am a junk collector, anything historical about our town including old photos, old maps, Chamber of Commerce and McKee Jungle Gardens brochures, newspaper ads and citrus labels from local packinghouses.”

Cooksey never considered retirement until one Saturday morning last June when he woke up with a racing heart beat. His wife took him to the hospital.  “I walked in and they put a machine on me. Then someone came with a wheelchair and literally ran me back to the emergency room.”

He had survived a heart attack and now wears a pacemaker. “After that scare, Jackie kept insisting I retire, which I did last December. But I hate retirement.”

To keep busy, Cooksey still works on his postcard collection. “I go to postcard shows and know most of the dealers. The best one is in Orlando. They get 50 or 60 dealers from around the country.  I also get postcards in the mail from other collectors, usually 10-15 at a time. I pick the ones I want and send the rest back. Prices keep going up on these old cards. My most expensive one was $72 after my collector discount.”

He also has all three of his kids here in town. His 18-year old granddaughter, Delaney Cooksey, was crowned Miss Hibiscus 2013 last month.

Most of his postcards and other memorabilia are in storage, taken out to display at historical events like the Heritage Celebration last February. He also goes fishing when he can. “I am still a fisherman. I catch fish, come home, clean them, go to bed and wake up happy.”

To most people who know B.T., he seems happy all the time, retired or not.