Claude Bunyan Cook was born on December 26, 1918, in Roanoke, Randolph County, Alabama. He was the son of Alonzo Ozley Stevenson Cook and Lenora Dera "Nora" Bishop Cook. He was married to Mary Jo Huey Cope. He graduated from Handley High School in Roanoke and worked at the post office. He registered for the draft in 1940 and, in March 1942, enlisted in the U.S. Army. After basic training, he attended Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1943. He later became a platoon leader in Company A, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, and fought in Normandy, Cherbourg, Operation Cobra, the Falaise pocket, and across France into Belgium.

On September 2, 1944, during the advance into Belgium, his platoon reached the Imbrechies ridge near Macon and encountered German forces from the 2nd SS Panzer Division. While organizing observation positions in a barn, he was killed instantly by enemy artillery fire. He became the first Allied soldier to die on Belgian soil during the liberation. He received the Silver Star and Purple Heart, and after the war, his remains were brought home and buried in Cedarwood Cemetery, Roanoke, Alabama. The barn where he died later became the Musée Lieutenant Cook, honoring both him and the soldiers of the 9th Infantry Division.

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