The Hudson Valley Connection Behind Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch

Who Knew Cookie Monster Had Ties to The Hudson Valley?

When I think Cookie Monster and Sesame Street, I never thought about the Hudson Valley...until now.

Historic Red Hook recently took to social media to share a fun fact about the Hudson Valley and Sesame Street.

According to their records, Jeffrey Arnold Moss is buried at the St. John the Evangelist Cemetery, in Barrytown.

Moss was the creator of Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and he wrote the Sesame Street classic "Rubber Duckie."

The Cookie Monster creator died in New York City in September of 1998 after a battle with colon cancer.

Jefferey Arnold Moss Award Winning Career

Creating iconic characters like Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch has to come with some high accolades, right?

Historic Red Hook shared some interesting details about Jeffery Arnold Moss' career.

We mentioned earlier that he also wrote Rubber Duckie. Did you know that song was a Billboard Top 20 hit? Rubber Duckie first aired on Sesame Street on February 25th, 1970. It was late released as a single later that same year in July.

According to Wikipedia, Rubber Duckie peaked at #16 on the Top 20 chart.

And to think, parents and kids every where are singing Rubber Duckie in 2026 during bath time.

Moss won 14 Emmy Awards and was nominated for an Academy Award for the movie "The Muppets Take Manhattan." He also wrote songs on 4 Grammy Award winning projects.

Additionally, Moss was the author of many Sesame Street children's books and books of poetry.

You can learn more about Moss's career and history on the Historic Red Hook website. 

The Creator of Scrabble is from the Hudson Valley?!

I never knew about Jeffrey Arnold Moss's Hudson Valley connection, but it reminded me of when I learned about another local celebrity: Alfred Mosher Butts.

Butts was an American architect who was born in Poughkeepsie, New York back in 1899.

In 1931 Butts lost his job at an architecture firm and ended up falling on some hard times. After a few years he got creative and used his love of games to create a brand new board game.

READ MORE: Scrabble: A Hudson Valley Classic

After a few rejections, name changes, and teaming up with James Brunot Scrabble was born!

Every year in October there's a local Scrabble tournament in Poughkeepsie.

Butts died in 1993 in Rhinebeck, New York.