The family of Helen Cooper will have a ceremony at 2 p.m. Sunday at Sunset Memorial Gardens to unveil three lineage society grave markers.
Her gravesite is at sunset Memorial Gardens in the Harmony Section, 182, Space 4. There is some shade, but no seating so people may feel free to bring a chair.
The three grave markers are for the Daughters of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the Confederacy and Colonial Dames of the 17th Century.
Helen also held memberships in Odessa Classroom Teachers Association, American Legion Auxiliary.
The ceremony is being organized by her daughter Carla McGinley, who lives in the Houston area. McGinley said her mother wanted each marker added to her Bronze Memorial marker at her gravesite.
Cooper died at age 88 on Jan. 7, 2020 in Katy. Her obituary said she was born July 20, 1931, in Buffalo, Okla., to Dr. Thomas Harold and Gladys Williams. She was married to Jim (James Paul) Cooper in Odessa on June 21, 1952.
Cooper was reared in the Texas Gulf Oil camps, attending grade schools in Crane, McCamey, Iraan, Goldsmith and Odessa. Her family moved to Oklahoma City, Okla., in 1943. She graduated from Central High School in 1948.
The family then moved to San Antonio and a year later to Odessa where Helen’s father, Dr. Harold Williams, began his chiropractic practice. Helen attended college for two years and then worked as an office manager-bookkeeper for several years in Odessa, Anchorage, Alaska, and Amarillo.
After moving back to Odessa in 1967, the obituary said, she returned to college and graduated from Sul Ross University in 1971. She received her master’s degree in Guidance and Counseling from University of Texas of the Permian Basin.
She was a licensed professional counselor. Cooper taught special education in elementary and high schools for seven years. She was a Title I counselor for one year and spent 21 years as a counselor at Bonham Junior High.
In 1997 she received the “Junior High School Counselor of the Year” award from the Permian Basin Counselor’s Association of which she was a member. Helen also held memberships in Odessa Classroom Teachers Association, American Legion Auxiliary, Daughters of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the Confederacy and Colonial Dames. She retired from the school system in 2001. Helen was a member of Temple Baptist Church (now Crossroads Fellowship) and Odessa Tabernacle.
Helen was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Louise Triplett, her nieces Kimberly Williams and Sara Scott, her great-grandson, Tristan and her husband.
The obituary said Cooper is survived by her daughter and son-in-law Carla and Mike McGinley of Katy; her son Craig Cooper of Euless; her grandchildren: Katie, Morgan, Jordan, Lindie, Walker, Stetson, D’Alainey, Justice; her great-grandchildren: Brooklyn, Amaryah, Makayla, Analisse, Jordan Jr., Jett; her brother and sister-in-law, Dr. Harold and Janice Williams Jr. of San Antonio; her nieces, nephews and their children: Mark and Nilsa Triplett of Colombia and William, Catherine, Tracy Triplett of Austin, Michael and Beverley Williams (now deceased) and Nicholas, Jonathan, Hannah of San Antonio, Kevin and Stacy Triplett and Kacy of Austin, Shannon Scott and Hunter of Arkansas; her cousin June Hanson of Colorado.
