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Sept. 27, 2003
How the
Mattress Queen found her Price Charming By REBECCA COOK
Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE (AP) _ Once upon a time, the Mattress Queen thought she
would never find her Prince Charming.
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 TV 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.
On
Sunny's end, the e-mail was one of many she received from strangers. Her
cheery, confident persona on her TV commercials, which often featured
Sunny lounging alluringly on a mattress, attracted scores of admirers.
Many
just wanted to meet her, to learn how she rose from being a secretary to
a saleswoman to the owner of a successful retail chain. Others wanted to
hit on her. She quickly deleted those notes.
John
kept his note 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 a book called
"Success Without a College Degree."
All
of a 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 spoke to groups and met many people, but whenever
anyone asked where she went to college, she quickly and artfully changed
the subject.
She
asked John to send her a copy of his book, and he did. When she read
sentences such as "Success comes from the heart, not from a diploma,"
she felt like John was speaking directly to her. Every chapter about how
people succeed in business and life without a college degree made her
think, "Yes, exactly!"
She
agreed to have coffee with John. By this time, he was dating someone
else, so it was just a friendly meeting.
His
first impression was that she was just as charming as she seemed in her
TV commercials.
Her
first impression was that John was someone with integrity, a real solid
citizen. That might not seem like the stuff of a future romance, but as
Sunny says, "Anybody who has dated will tell you that's a real find."
They
fell into an easy friendship of coffee dates and phone calls and
e-mails, and Sunny settled into the familiar role of gal pal. As a woman
working in the furniture business, she had always had plenty of male
friends. They would ask her for advice on things like what to wear on a
first date.
Sunny
and John shared similar outlooks on life, and John would sometimes ask
her advice on his relationship. Sunny happily dispensed it - they were
friends, and it seemed perfectly natural to her.
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 had no idea what the e-mail was about,
but she panicked. Had she done something wrong? She searched her mind
for anything she'd done lately that could be construed as a red flag,
but came up blank. Her heart pounding, she opened the e-mail. ...
And
it turned out to have nothing to do with her at all. John was talking
about something completely unrelated.
"Oh
my God," Sunny thought. She felt like she had just narrowly missed a car
accident. "What does this mean?"
She
called a friend. What did it mean? Was she getting emotionally involved?
Was that bad? What should she do?
He
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
Theater 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 of 2000, Sunny sold her chain of Sleep Country USA stores for a
tidy profit. With John's encouragement, she wrote a book on employee
motivation called "Common Things, Uncommon Ways."
Sunny
is, exactly as her name implies, a bubbly, friendly woman who shares her
stories easily and rapidly puts strangers at ease. She talks in complete
sentences and with expressive hand gestures, like the accomplished
public speaker she is.
John
is, as Sunny first perceived him, a solid man in looks and manner.
Barrel-chested and grounded, he pauses to think before carefully
answering questions. His guard goes up, subtly but undeniably, in front
of strangers.
His
latest project is their joint project, 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 on
Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 6 p.m. They interview guests from all different
fields who have, you guessed it, succeeded without a college degree.
Their goal is not to discourage education, but to show people who lack
formal education what they can accomplish.
John
taught himself video production and edits all the shows.
"I
orchestrate the show; she's the one with charisma and star power," he
says.
Meanwhile, Sunny says being married to John is the easiest thing she's
ever done. He never minds when people ask for her autograph or want to
talk to the famous Mattress Queen. In fact, she says he's the one who
taught her to realize how special she is.
"It
was like breathing or walking," she says about falling in love with
John. "It's hard to explain to people, it was just so natural."
They
share a mattress now in their West Seattle home, where they wake every
morning to a magnificent view of the Seattle skyline and Elliott Bay.
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. |
