Joseph L Cooper: Spanish-American War Soldier

WILLIAM COOPER > AMOS COOPER > CHALKLEY JARED COOPER > JOSEPH L COOPER

Joseph

m Carrie Miles

Joseph L Cooper had a pioneering spirit like many of the Coopers. His daughter, Jessie, married a member of the Miracle Braves of 1914, Leslie Mann.  His parents, Chalkley Jared Cooper and Margaret Thompson had nine children and Joseph came along smack dab in the middle on 17 Mar 1849 in Rock Grove, Stephenson County, Illinois.

The Civil War was raging and many of his family had enlisted in the Army when at 13, Joseph attempted to fake his way into the Army himself. He failed, but would make up for it later. In 1874, he went to Nebraska and went into business with his brother Capt Robert T Cooper in the milling business at Seward. Joe was a tinner by trade and engaged in this business for several years at Seward, David City, Bloomington, Kearney, and Grand Island.

He married Carrie Miles, who had been born in Marengo, Iowa, on 31 Aug 1866 in Buffalo, Nebraska on 26 Dec 1881. They had three children: Fred Harmon, who died at age 30 in 1914 in Lincoln, Nebraska; Jennie L., who was born in Jul 1889 and died prior to 1920 in Nebraska, and Jessie L, who was born 02 Mar 1894 in Norfolk, Nebraska and died in 1969 in Los Angeles County, California.

The family moved to Lincoln in 1894. A couple years later, Joseph finally got his chance to serve when he joined up with Company E, 1st Nebraska Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1898. He was issued a pension and his wife Carrie received his pension after his death. He started out at the Lancaster County fairgrounds which had become Camp Alvin Saunders before being sent by sea to the Philippines. He was nearly 50 years old.

"Camp Alvin Saunders was the muster in camp for the 1st and 2nd Nebraska Volunteer Infantry regiments for the Spanish American War. The camp was at the state fairgrounds in Lincoln, Nebraska. The camp was named after Alvin Saunders who was governor of Nebraska Territory during the Civil War. The camp had a short-life, primarily from April 26-May 19, 1898. The 1st Nebraska left Camp Saunders on May 16, 1898 for San Francisco and the 2nd Nebraska departed on May 19, 1898 for Camp Thomas, Chickamauga, Georgia. William Jennings Bryan, who became the Colonel and regimental commander of the 3rd Nebraska regiment, was reported being at Camp Saunders with “[a] corporals guard of volunteers” when the 2nd Nebraska departed on May 19. No recruits had been accepted yet for the 3rd regiment as of May 19, but these men were temporarily used to maintain order and guard the state’s property at the camp. The 3rd Nebraska assembled and mustered in at Fort Omaha beginning about June 12, 1898 so the stay of the regimental “cadre” at Camp Saunders was also very short."
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/military/SpanishAmericanWar/camp.htm

I recommend reading this very informative article on the 1st Nebraska Infantry here for details on the war and the unit where Joseph L. Cooper served.

The men of Company E enjoy Christmas dinner at
Camp Santa Mesa, December 25, 1898

The camp of Company E near the pumping station. 

Joseph returned to Lincoln after the war and worked as a day laborer. In 1920, he and Carrie were empty-nesters and he was running a second hand shop. I believe Jennie died between 1910-1920. In 1910 she was working in a factory. She is not listed as surviving on the obits of either Joseph or Carrie.

Carrie was greatly involved in the United Spanish War Veterans (USWV) Auxiliary and was a past president of the Lincoln Chapter. The couple lived at 1934 N 30th St in Lincoln for many years.

1934 N 30th St Lincoln

Joseph lived until 13 Dec 1930 and siblings Susie Cooper Jones, Chalkley Jared "Jay" Cooper, Jr., and Barton Gourley Cooper survived him. His wife Carried died 18 Dec 1944 in Lincoln.

See for update on Jennie L. Cooper Conklin go here.

Clan William: Miles Standish Munson & Genevieve Mather

49th MA Infantry Regiment
Port Hudson, LA 1863

Today's post is about a fellow who left his New England home and went pioneering to Kansas. His name intrigued me - Miles Standish Munson. Along the way, I found some interesting tidbits about him, but moreover, about his wife, Jenny Mather.  

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > William Munson II > David Munson > Stephen Munson > Miles Standish Munson m. Genevieve Mather

Miles Standish Munson was born to Stephen Munson, originally of Litchfield, Connecticut and his wife, Nancy Nash. An early account of the Munson's mentions that Nancy was related to a Virginia governor, but I don't know if that's true. Her lineage does go directly from the early Connecticut freeman, Thomas Nash, immigrant of England, who was a blacksmith.

By the time Miles was born on 05 Jul 1841, the couple lived in Sandisfield, Amherst, Massachusetts. Miles was the youngest surviving child.  Stephen was a carpenter and during the mid-1800s, many sawmills had popped up along the nearby river. A planned railway stop in nearby Farmington Hills failed and most industry in the area failed.

Miles was in Sheffield, Massachusetts in 1860. In 1862, he enlisted in the 49th Infantry Regiment of Massachusetts where he engaged in some minor skirmishes before being mustered out in Sep 1863. Miles arrived in Kansas in 1875 as a result of his Chicago business. 

Reportedly, Miles went to Chicago to work for SP Brownell on South Water Street and later at Board of Trade for "several years." He worked for a company that John Lake was president of that provided the grain and hay for the street car horses. He came to Kansas to find pasture for retired street car horses at both Burlingame and Council Grove, where he was buying corn for the Chicago market.

Genevieve "Jenny" Mather's parents were Jebediah Peck Mather and Sara "Sally" Amelia Deming who originally hailed from Watertown, New York.  Jenny was born in 1859 in Kansas City, Missouri. Her family had lived in Butler County, but were living in Council Grove in Morris County, Kansas in 1877. Her background was described as follows:

"...The father was extensively engaged in the lumber business and rafted lumber down the Ohio river to Cincinnati for a number of years. In 1857 he had a great amount of lumber on hand, owing to his inability to run rafts on the river the two preceding years on account of low water. Being unable to sell his lumber in Cincinnati when he reached that point, he went on down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi, and after selling most of his lumber at St. Louis, he went up the Missouri river to Leavenworth, where he sold the first shingles to be sold in Kansas, and after disposing of his lumber he bought machinery for a flouring and saw mill, which he shipped from St. Louis by river transportation to Westport, which is now the site of Kansas City." 

"He had determined to haul his mill machinery to Council Grove and build a mill near the Kaw Indiana reservation, but when he reached Westport the Border war was raging with such fierceness that he decided to remain there for a time. However, the following year, or in 1860, he continued his journey with his mill machinery and erected a mill at Council Grove, according to his plan. This was the most distant mill west located in Kansas and the third one to be built in the State, the other two being at Lawrence and Fort Scott."

"The Mather mill at Council Grove on the Neosho river was a substantial three story building, built of brick, and was located near the old Kaw mission, the brick being manufactured on the east side of the river. When this mill was built it was a great wonder to the 3,000 Kaw Indians who lived on the reservation there and they called Mr. Mather Ta-poos-ka."

"Mr. Mather also built a twelve-room house in the vicinity of the mill, which in those days was considered a mansion. The house is still standing and is in a good state of preservation...Mrs. Mather, who was active in the early suffrage movement in Kansas, entertained in this house, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Kady Stanton and other prominent women of the times. J. P. Mather spent the last six years of his life in Emporia, where he died on May 8, 1905, aged ninety years..."

"...Mrs. Munson had an opportunity to observe much of the early life in Kansas, living in such close proximity to the Kaw Indian reservation, she had an opportunity to study the "Noble Red Man" in his native heath, and she has had many exciting experiences with Indians. She has seen three thousand Cheyenne redskins on the warpath, and at one time a drunken Indian came to the Mather home and threatend to scalp her, demanding $5 and some flour. Her sister covered the Indian with a revolver, whereupon the inebriated child of the forest departed. Mrs. Munson could speak the Kaw language fluently, and knows a lot about the traits of Indians. When she was a girl she owned an Indian pony and was some rider, too..."[1]

The Kaw Nation

Miles and Jenny married in Council Grove on 09 Apr 1877. A year later, they moved on to El Dorado, Butler County. At that time, he and Capt JT Anderson had a lumber business. Miles bought him out at some point and continued to operate the business for an additional 14 years.

Miles had his fingers in lots of pies and was a leading citizen of El Dorado.  He ran the coal works for many years, had real estate holdings, and loaned money to folks to help finance the purchase of homes and farms, and owned a 640-acre well improved farm. Things were going so well, that Mrs. Munson had a housekeeper. Munson reportedly never foreclosed on anyone. His humor was described as dry and sparkling with philosophy.[1]

El Dorado Republican, 15 Aug 1902

About the time Miles sold his lumber yard, he built a market on lots he owned east of the lumberyard. He continued to farm and raise horses and cattle and his coal yard continued to flourish. Around the turn of the 20th century, Miles sold the coal yard.

All through this period, his wife, Jennie, would participate in all sorts of women's clubs, beautification projects, and good works and built a stellar reputation as a lady of substance. 

The couple raised five children; four sons and a daughter.

On 10 Oct 1906, Miles died of heart disease at age 49. Jennie was named executrix.

This loss did not slow Jenny down. In 1908, she was the local representative to the state-level Woman's Federation of Clubs meeting. She also served as the Treasurer of her local club. This was also the year her mother, Sally Deming Mather, died in Emporia. 

Women's Suffrage Win in Kansas!

Events, they were a'changing in the country. Women were battling all over the country to get the right to vote. Wyoming was the first state to grant women that right.  Kansas was the eighth state to grant women equal rights to vote in November of 1912.  Reform was moving at the speed of molasses - it had been since 1867 when the idea was first proposed in the US. It still would not be until 1920 when the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution would be ratified.

A strange thing happened in Butler County in 1912, shortly after women received their rights. A judge in Butler County sat the first all-women jury for a trial, which included Jenny Munson. And here's what happened:

Reportedly, the case in question was originally tried with a jury of men, who could not reach a verdict. The judge felt the only option he had was to empanel a group of women.

"The first jury composed of women to sit in a case in district court in Kansas was empaneled in El Dorado, Butler County, part of the 19th judicial district. Wednesday morning, November 27 (1912). The case before the court is H H Boeck vs Carrie M Schreiber, et al. The case is a damage suit where the plaintiff alleges he purchased a tract of land from the estate of Carrie M Schreiber and when he received the land, it was not the tract which he alleges was shown him when he made the deal."

"The empanelling of the jury was not attended with undue excitement from spectators other than men, for but few women knew that the jury was to be called Wednesday morning. "

"Undersheriff Purcell was kept busy Tuesday night and Wednesday morning summoning the women. Many and varied excuses were given the undersheriff, to which he turned a deaf ear. Most of the women summoned were at the court house by 9 o'clock, others were a little late, but by 10:30, a jury was secured. And it did not take any longer to secure the jury than it would a jury composed of men."

"The plaintiff's lawyers used two challenges and the defendant's lawyers used one. Each side is entitled to three challenges, besides their challenges for cause." When the jury box was filled, Judge AIkman addressed the women with a few remarks giving them to understand that he had called the women to act as jurors in good faith. Also that if any lady was offended by being called as a juror, he would excuse her. And htat if they would serve he would appreciate the honor."

"In the examination of the women in the jury box, only three were challenged, three being excused for cause. Mrs Meeks stated that she objected to women being on a jury as did Miss Edna Smith. Mrs Kilgore was excused on account of sickness. Mrs. Ida Lawrence was excused on account of her little boy being sick, she not having had time to secure someone to remain with him during her absence..."

"...Judge Aikman announced to the jury after it had been empanelled that he woudl adjourn court in the afternoon and give the women a chance to look after necessitites about their homes. Court will convene again Friday morning."

El Dorado Republican (El Dorado, KS) 06 Dec 1912, Fri, p1

Walnut Valley Times, 04 Apr 1913

 After the two days of testimony, the panel went to the jury room to deliberate. Three hours later, at 11 pm, the forewoman handed the verdict to her husband, the bailiff, and he to the judge. The plaintiff won $1,200 dollars. Each juror received $2 for each day of service.

The next year, both plaintiff and defendant attempted for a new trial. Part of the argument was based on the process by which an all-women panel was selected. The verdict stood. Also in 1913, the mayoral race was heavily weighted for the elected Citizen's Party, but Mrs Munson managed to pull in one vote!

In 1917, Mrs. Munson and her five children were beneficiaries of a Munson uncle's will. The amount  was not known. I believe this money came from Albert Munson, who died in 1915 by way of his wife Sara Heath Munson, who died in 1917. 

Mrs. Munson continued to work in the community for the rest of her life. She bought and sold real estate like a champ. Her daughter lived with her until her death in 1938. Her daughter would never marry and never have a career, so I would assume assets were such that the children were left comfortable.

[1] History of Butler County, Kansas by Vol. P. Mooney, Standard Publishing Company, Lawrence, Kans: 1916. ill.; 894 pages (pages 428-421)

The Miracle Braves of 1914: Leslie Mann

William Cooper > Amos Cooper > Chalkley Jared Cooper, Sr > Joseph L Cooper > Jessie Cooper

Young Les Mann

and Leslie Mann

The great extended Cooper clan of Pennsylvania was everywhere in the Stephenson/Winnebago counties area by the late 1800s. Amos, the first pioneer, who had settled in Clark County, Illinois had a large family which included Chalkley Jared Cooper and his wife Margaret Ann Thompson who had found roots in Stephenson County. They were successful and very well-regarded citizens of Rock Grove.They had nine children, the fourth being Joseph L Cooper, who headed west to Nebraska.

Joseph married his wife, Carrie Miles, born in Marengo, Iowa, on 26 Dec 1881 in Buffalo, Nebraska. He lived in Norfolk, and was later a day laborer in Lincoln and eventually ended up in Omaha, owning a second-hand shop. They had three children: Fred Harmon, who died at age 30 in 1914, Jennie, and Jessie. Jennie is not listed as a surviving child in her parents' obituaries, so I would guess she too died young.

Jessie met Leslie Mann, a star 4-letter man who attended Lincoln High in Lincoln, and married him immediately after his graduation, on 04 Mar 1911 across the river from Omaha in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Leslie was the son of Samuel and Minnie Mann of Lincoln. Leslie and his brother Chauncey (Channing) R Mann, both stood out on the athletic field. Both would make athletics/education/service their life's calling. Les looked back later in life on his greatest sports moment and he said it was the football game between Lincoln High and Omaha Central in 1909 or 1910. Football would remain the game he loved best.

Miracle Braves of 1914

Leslie attended Springfield YMCA college in Springfield, Mass, where he also 4-lettered. In 1913, he joined the Boston Braves and played in the World Series as an outfielder on the "Miracle Braves of 1914." The team had moved from dead last in the rankings in the last two months of the year and ended up taking it all in four games straight (you can read more about that here).

Les Mann as a Cub

In 1915, he moved on to play with the Chicago Cubs and played in the 1918 World Series between the Cubs and Boston Red Sox. It was while in Chicago that their only child, Leslie Mann, Jr., was born in 1918. Mann would have an RBI single off of the famous Babe Ruth in Game 4 of the 1918 World Series. He would later also play for the St Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and New York Giants.

Baseball wasn't the million dollar contract game then that it is now, so Les coached between seasons. He taught basketball at Amherst from 1915-1917, and Phys Ed at Rice Institute from 1919-1924. During the first World War, he worked at Camp Logan in Texas for two years. He was the head basketball coach for Indiana University in the 1922-23 and 1923-24 seasons and at Springfield College in the 1924-25 and 1925-26 seasons.

Once he retired as a player and coach, Mann became an advocate for baseball as an international sport. He founded the USA Baseball Congress and organized a 20-game tour of Japan in 1935. He was also largely responsible for baseball being selected as a demonstration sport for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He went on to found the International Baseball Federation, which organized an international championship in England in 1938, Cuba in 1939, and Puerto Rico in 1941.

Spalding Official Base Ball Guide

During World War II, he worked for the USO, first as director of the federal USO building in Tampa,
Florida, and later as director of the mobile division of the USO for the West Coast area.The family, after a life on the road, settled in the Pomona/Pasadena area of California and Les remained mostly retired after the War. Les wrote many books on various sports.

Coach Mann, Indiana University Basketball, 1922-23

Tragically, Leslie's California retirement was cut short. Despite his athletic background and good health, Les and Jessie were driving in Pasadena on 14 Jan 1962 when Les complained of feeling faint. Moments later, he had a massive heart attack, lost control of his vehicle, and hit two parked cars. Mrs. Mann survived the crash, but Les died of the heart attack that day at the age of 67. Jessie died 08 Jul 1969.

Jessie & Leslie's son Leslie grew up to serve in the US Navy during World War II as an Ensign. After the War, he attended Stanford Law School. He married and was a successful attorney in Pomona who later resided in Scottsdale, Arizona. They had a son, Leslie Mann III.

Jennie Cooper Conklin

AMOS COOPER > WILLIAM LLOYD COOPER > CHALKELY JARED COOPER > JOSEPH L COOPER > JENNIE L COOPER m Clyde Conklin

Joseph Cooper was a tinsmith by trade and though he regretted not being able to fight in the Civil War, did fight in the Spanish-American War at the age of 50 years old! His wife Carrie Miles and he had three children. The youngest daughter, Jessie, would marry noted athlete Leslie Mann of the Miracle Braves of 1914.

As of my last research, Jennie had been working as a seamstress in a factory in 1910 and then, in 1912, had died. Since then, I discovered she had married Claude A Conklin, had a baby, and twelve days after her daughter's birth, died at the home of her parents in Lincoln, Nebraska. The daughter, Enid "Connie" Conklin, was born on 31 Jul 1912 in Lincoln, at the home of her grandparents. She lived to be 88 years old and died at Miller's Merry Manor nursing home in Syracuse, Indiana on 25 Apr 2001.

CASE SOLVED: Susan L Cooper

Amos Cooper > Chalkley Jared Cooper > Susan L Cooper

Bellingham, WA 1910

I complained recently about how difficult it is to trace women "back in the olden days" because of marriages and the loss of their original identity. In hunting down the children of Chalkley Jared Cooper, this really impacted my work.

Chalkley "Charley" Cooper and his wife Margaret Ann Thompson married in 1840 in Crawford County, Illinois and had nine children. They are, in order:

Capt Robert T Cooper > Emma Brenizer

Mary Ellen Cooper > Jacob M Fisher

Barton Gourley Cooper > (1) Mary Magdaline Bollinger (2) Alice Bollinger

Joseph L Cooper > Carrie L Miles

Margaret Anna "Annie" Cooper > George Emrick 

Amy/Ann Cooper (mystery to be solved)

Susan Lavica Cooper > William May "May" Jones

Chalkley Jared "Jay" Cooper, Jr. > Minnie Janet Kaup

Harlin Cooper (year of birth unknown, died young before 1880)

I found very little to support Susan's existence until I found an obit for Joseph L Cooper. It said he was survived by "a sister, Susie Jones Bellingham of Washington." Hmm. 

Then, I found the Washington Death Records. They list an incorrect first name for her father, but the last name was correct. A person who put a family tree on Ancestry had the wrong first name for her husband which sent me down a road to futility. Doing some tricky backwards detecting, I finally found, and definitely confirmed Susan's story and her later lineage. The gap in information from 1881 to 1899 due to the infamous missing 1890 US Census could be overcome! If she hadn't lived in Washington during those missing years, where was she? She wasn't back home in Stephenson County. Several of her brothers went to Nebraska. Maybe they were close by. 

Susan was born in 1853 in Stephenson County, Illinois. She moved west sometime prior to 1900 when she was both married to W. May Jones and living in Hiawatha, Nebraska. I also found reference they had also lived in Jewell County, Kansas in the 1880s - her brother Barton had also lived there in the late 1870s/early 1880s. They had three children in Jewell: 

Lyman Llewellyn Jones

Edward James Jones

Ira Truman "Casey" Jones

In about 1904, the family arrived in the wild west mining, lumber, fishing/canning town of Bellingham, Washington, where they settled, with the exception of their brief stint in Chilliwack New Westminster, British Columbia. Susan was a piano tuner and lived until 1934, when she died at the age of 81. Her husband May either sold or built sewing machines and farmed during his time in Canada and died prior to Susan on 15 Aug 1931 in Bellingham. Her children survived her. She died 16 Sep 1934.

Ira T. Jones was the fire chief of Bellingham under two administrations and served as assistant chief between political appointments. He retired in 1943. He had a giant cacti collection, which he began selling off in 1943. In 1946, he and his wife bought a beautiful new home. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1970. Ira died in 1978 in Bellingham, and Iona, his Icelandic wife, died in 1990 in Seattle.

Ira named his oldest child Clayton Cooper Jones, further reinforcing the theory that Susan had been found. Ira died in 1978.

I have more items to provide as proof, but will be posting these privately. I'm happy to answer any questions about this research. Fill out the contact form on this page and I'll get back to you!

Remembering Opal Fay Perrin Hansen

Opal

A little bit about my maternal grandmother who I loved incredibly and was so fortunate to have for over 50 years of my life (this blog is dedicated almost entirely to my paternal antecedents).

Carl Leslie (C.L. or Les) and Carrie Fay (Cory) Perrin's third child, Opal Fay Perrin, was born February 21, 1923 at their home next to the famous Little Brown Church in Bradford Township, Chickasaw County, Iowa. In 1925, the family moved to the "Perrin homeplace" where she grew up just outside of New Hartford, Iowa.

She was active in high school—president of the high school in senior year, vice president of the senior class, managing editor of yearbook, an editor of school newspaper and in band all through high school--playing several instruments including clarinet and violin. One of her cousins so enjoyed classical music, he would have her play her entire repertoire on the violin just for him as he sat on a log by the wood pile. In return, he would do her wood chopping chores.

She was valedictorian of the New Hartford class of 1940 and worked as assistant postmaster at the New Hartford post office. She married a young man from Cedar Falls, Russell Hansen, September 14, 1941. They loved to tell the story about their meeting at a local skating rink when Opal caught the eye of her future husband after he fell over the feet of her sister Alice. They were married exactly one year later at the Little Brown Church. With the help of Opal's dad, a building contractor, they built a little house for $600 in a farm field north of Cedar Falls. Russ continued driving for his parent's trucking business, The Blue Line Transfer, and Opal made collections for the family business on foot, walking for miles with their baby daughter on her hip for the grand sum of $5 a week.

Opal at about 16

Russ went into the Army in the summer of 1943 and worked as an MP, attaining the rank of Sergeant. His little family joined him in Denver, Colorado for most of his enlistment. After the war, they returned to their little house in Cedar Falls and built on to it before the arrival of their second daughter in 1947. Russ spent the next four years at Iowa State Teachers College. His first teaching job also included the title of school principal and for the next few years he taught in Iowa schools and an inner city school in Milwaukee while spending almost every summer in Colorado working on his Masters and later his PhD (Ed.) Opal was there, as she always was, to support him. She typed and retyped his dissertation on an old, clunky typewriter until it was perfect.

Through all their many moves, Opal's skills, especially at the sewing machine, made every rental home inviting and comfortable and a hub of activity for their frequent guests. In 1956, they returned to Cedar Falls and built a home on a woodsy bluff in Cedar Heights. Russ taught at the Price Lab School for a short time and then the State College of Iowa but by then, his passion had become square dance calling. He and Opal were founders of the Haylofters Square Dance Club in Cedar Falls and Russ became a frequently-requested caller at square dance events not only in Iowa but throughout the country. Opal acted as his business manager and also ensured they were both looking good in their handmade square dance regalia. They eventually made the decision to make it their full-time business.

After leaving the University, they bought a farm in Bremer County, remodeled the huge old farm house then sold it and built one of the first passive solar homes in Iowa next to their old farm property. Next, they traded in their house for a Greyhound bus that they outfitted to keep them living in comfort as they traveled from one square dance gig to the next throughout the Western US. They finally retired in Mt Pleasant, Iowa for a few years in the 1990s before becoming year-round residents of Arizona.

Opal had been wheelchair-bound for a time and they eventually moved in with their youngest

Opal HS Graduation

daughter who lived nearby.

Opal was the epitome of the perfect 1940s/1950s housewife, managing all facets of daily living in the city or on the farm, from tending a big garden and orchard to managing business affairs and entertaining large groups of people. She was Martha Stewart before there was a Martha Stewart, except she never gave herself the credit Martha gives herself.

Opal was also a fine artist, creating beautiful art work of many types. Somehow, she managed to do it all without ever having learned to drive. Had she been born in a different generation, Opal might have been a clothing designer. When she was five, her dad cut down the legs of a piano stool so she could reach the treadle on the sewing machine. From then on, she designed and cut patterns from newspapers for sewing everything from dresses to winter coats to men's suits--she even designed and made fashionable uniforms from salvaged World War II parachute material for an entire girl's basketball team.

Despite her physical challenges later in life, she had a quick, intelligent mind and a wonderful laugh. She continued to play cards with the family and, as always, she rarely lost a game. She taught her children and grandchildren the spirit of friendly competitiveness. After 69 years of marriage, Opal passed away in Arizona on April 3, 2012. She left her husband, two daughters, three granddaughters, one grandson, and three great grandchildren.