Dorothy "Cookie" Foster Teer was born on August 15, 1941 to Dorothy and Nello Teer, Jr. of Durham, N.C. After a stint in New York, she returned to Durham in the 1970s. After taking some courses at Duke Divinity School, she joined the committee that founded Triangle Hospice. In the early 1980s, Teer became an overnight radical feminist, activist, and speaker, giving over 400 slide shows around the United States on pornography, sex role stereotyping, and child pornography. A 1987 conversation led to her co-founding of Southern Sisters Bookstore, a Durham, N.C. bookstore "by, for, and about women." By the late 1980s and 1990s, Teer was heavily involved in advocacy efforts around child custody, divorce, and domestic abuse, and frequently had "mothers on the run" living in her home. With a group of other women activists and radicals, Teer founded a writing collective called Women Against Sex. Married and divorced twice, Teer had three children. After Southern Sisters Bookstore closed, Teer took a step back from activism and began working as a real estate agent.
From the description of Cookie Teer Papers, 1971-2000, bulk 1983-1997. (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 46344991
