Mattress Queen found love — via e-mail
And that suited her just fine.
Sunny Kobe Cook built a mattress-store empire from scratch in the Pacific Northwest during the 1990s and became something of a local icon, thanks to her starring role in Sleep Country USA's inescapable commercials.
But sadly, the woman known as the Mattress Queen had no one to share her own bed. Her first marriage ended in divorce, a victim in part of her own success and the strain it put on her marriage.
She was through with dating, she told herself and whoever would listen. Little did she know that true love was waiting in her e-mail inbox.
For years, John Murphy had been captivated by Sunny Kobe Cook from afar, watching her smiling face on his television screen. In the late 1990s, he was a high-tech executive turned author and a recently divorced dad of three, living alone in his Seattle apartment.
What the heck, he thought. He called Sunny's office, got her e-mail address and started crafting a message he hoped would strike the right note of admiration without scaring her off.
He kept it short, sweet and neutral. He suggested they get together for coffee.
Sunny wrote back and said she didn't meet strange men for coffee — in the nicest possible way, of course. But for some reason, she didn't delete the e-mail.
John replied, saying he was not just a fan, but the author of "Success Without a College Degree."
All of the sudden, Sunny sat up straighter in front of her computer.
John had no way of knowing it — mostly because she carefully concealed the fact — but Sunny had never graduated from college, and she had always felt bad about it.
She asked John to send her his book, and he did. When she read sentences such as "Success comes from the heart, not from a diploma," she felt John was speaking directly to her.
She agreed to have coffee with John. By this time, he was dating someone else, so it was just a friendly meeting.
They fell into an easy friendship of coffee dates and phone calls and e-mail.
Then one day John sent the second e-mail that changed both their lives. "Red flag," the subject line said.
Sunny read the subject line and froze.
"Red flag?" What did that mean? She panicked. She searched her mind for anything she'd done that could be construed as a red flag. Her heart pounding, she opened the e-mail — and it turned out to have nothing to do with her.
"Oh my God," Sunny thought. She felt like she had narrowly missed a car accident.
She called a friend. What did it mean? Was she getting emotionally involved? Was that bad? What should she do?
The friend told her to stop analyzing it and enjoy it. Oh my goodness, Sunny thought. This could be love.
Soon after that fateful e-mail, John broke up with his girlfriend, he and Sunny got together and they haven't been apart since.
They married on July 22, 2000, in front of about 130 people at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. Her favorite wedding picture shows the two of them in front of the theater marquee, which declared: "A Royal Wedding Starring Sunny Kobe Cook as the Mattress Queen, John Murphy as Prince Charming."
In February 2000, Sunny sold Sleep Country USA for a tidy profit. With John's encouragement, she wrote a book on employee motivation called "Common Things, Uncommon Ways."
Their latest project is a talk show on Tacoma's public television station, KBTC, called "Success Without a College Degree." They taped 26 episodes this summer, and the first show airs Wednesday at 6 p.m. They interview guests from different fields. Their goal is not to discourage education, but to show people who lack formal education what they can accomplish.
Meanwhile, Sunny says being married to John is the easiest thing she's ever done.
They share a mattress now in their West Seattle home, where they wake every morning to a magnificent view. Sailboats and ships and ferries cruise past their windows, full of people who are just like they once were, people who never know when love might take them by surprise.
Their plan, of course, is to live happily ever after.
Sunny Kobe Cook is no relation to the writer of this article.