John Warren Cooke (February 28, 1915 – November 28, 2009) was an American politician and newspaper publisher.

[2] His father, an Episcopal minister, had been a major in the Confederate States Army, serving on the personal staff of Robert E.

[3][5] Cooke was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1941, representing Mathews and Gloucester Counties on the Middle Peninsula.

The seat had been briefly held by James Bland Martin, and before that for many years by John Tabb DuVal of Gloucester County, although for four years (1929-1933) it had been held by Emma Lee Smith White of Mathews, and Cooke later said that until postwar redistricting, an informal understanding had been that a person from Gloucester County would serve two terms, then allow someone from Mathews County to hold the office.

[7][8] Cooke was elected House Speaker on January 10, 1968, replacing the retiring E. Blackburn Moore.