Teresa Moll Coole -- Journalist

 

Teresa Amarette Moll Coole

Teresa Amarette Moll was born on October 27, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents were Albert and Robbie Amarette Wilkins Moll. Her mother, Amarette, was born in Cadiz, Kentucky and her father was a native of Chicago.  Teresa or Terri, as she was known, had two siblings, a half-sister, Elizabeth Wilkins Young, born in 1933 and a brother, Jeffery Wilkins Moll, born in 1947.  Terri grew up in Illinois and graduated from Prospect High School in Prospect, Illinois in 1971. That same year she and her family moved to Central Florida.

The year 1971 was when Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida.  Terri became a member of the opening team for Walt Disney World, working at the preview center as a preview guide. Later she became the editor of an internal publication at Walt Disney World known as "Eyes & Ears." While working at Disney, she juggled her work and continued her education attending the University of Central Florida in Orlando.  She graduated from the university in 1975 with a degree in Radio Television/Journalism.

It was while she was working at Walt Disney World that she met Stephen Wilson Coole from Lake Park, Florida.  Terri and Stephen were married on November 17, 1979 in Winter Park, Florida. Terri and Stephen became the parents of three sons, Randolph Wilson Coole, born in 1985, Jordan Albert Coole, born in 1986 and Spencer Thomas Coole, born in 1989.

After working for ten years at Walt Disney World, Terri joined the Red Lobster Company which had been founded in Orlando.  She worked in their offices of training, development and communication. In the mid 1980s she took time off from her corporate job to raise her three sons.

Instead of returning to the corporate world, Terri joined the South Lake Press in Clermont, Florida working as a reporter. She also wrote a column for the newspaper for which she earned the 1990 Central Florida Press Club’s First Place Award for Best Weekly Column. In November 1990, Terri went on to become a reporter for The Orlando Sentinel, the primary newspaper of Orlando and Central Florida. She became one of their major reporters and wrote numerous columns for the newspaper over the years.

In 1996, Terri joined the ranks of educators and became an English teacher and literacy coach at Windy Hill Middle School in Clermont, Florida and later at South Lake High School in Groveland, Florida.  At South Lake she was named teacher of the year for 2001.

While pursuing a career in journalism and as an educator, Terri was an active member of the Tomoka Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and a member and past president of the Clermont Junior Woman's Club where she received the 1993 Charlotte Meads Smith Volunteer of the year award and helped bring the club national recognition with a Chevron Corporation award for outstanding community improvement for the construction of Park Pals Playground. She was a member of the Central Florida Region-Sports Car Club of America, where she served with the pit crew for her husband Steve. In addition, Terri worked timing and scoring at regional and national events. She also covered regional and national races as a correspondent for SportsCar magazine.

Terri died on August 19, 2009 at her home in Montverde, Florida, after a two year battle with throat cancer.



LINEAGE: (Teresa Amarette Moll was the daughter of Albert and Robbie Amarette Wilkins Moll, the granddaughter of Lacy Hopson and Pocahontas Gentry Wilkins and the great-granddaughter of Robert Clements and Nancy Peachie Thomas Wilkins.  Nancy was the eleventh child of Stanley and Emily Ann Light Thomas.  Stanley was the second child of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas.  Starkie was the fourth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.  Mary was the seventh child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)