Palestine High School Alumni Association

Mary Evalyn Collie Cooper

06 / 11 / 1921  –  09 / 06 / 2003

Services for Mary Evalyn Collie Cooper, 82, of Bryan will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Hillier Funeral Home in Bryan with the Rev. Bob Richers officiating. Burial will follow in Palestine in the Land of Memory Cemetery at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Arrangements are under the direction of Hillier Funeral Home.

Mrs. Cooper died Saturday at her home.  She was born June 11, 1921 in Palestine.  Mrs. Cooper had been a resident of Bryan since 1958 and a longtime member of First United Methodist Church.

She had an extensive education receiving many honors and degrees during her lifetime with a B.A., B.S. and M.A. from Texas Women’s University. She did post-graduate work at Trinity University, Baylor University, Texas A&M University and others.

Mrs. Cooper taught elementary school as well as junior high and high school classes. When she moved to Bryan she worked at Texas A&M before going to work with Bryan Independent School District as a speech pathologist for 13 years. She then moved to the College Station ISD as an education diagnostician where she worked for 10 years.

Mrs. Cooper retired in 1968 after a total of 35 years in the education profession.  In 1974 she began her family research studies. In 1977 she began teaching classes in genealogy; first with community education program and later from her home where she had created a classroom with materials from countless libraries and bookstores across the country on genealogy resources.

Through the years she taught hundreds of people how to search for their ancestors.  In 1979, she organized the Brazos Genealogy Association and became the editor and publisher of the Brazos Genealogical advertiser, which was a 40 page quarterly magazine until 1986.

Mrs. Cooper also published several books including a listing of the Willowhole and Keefer cemeteries, Brazos County 1860 Census (1842 tax roll and 1850 index), Brazos County 1970 census, Bryan city cemetery books 1, 2, 3 and 4 and wrote a novel – Letters from Two Brothers dating from 1870 to 1873.

In 1990, she organized the Texas Research Ramblers, which is a local genealogy organization that met monthly to do research and to take trips together looking for their ancestors. The Ramblers were formed from class members she taught and it continues to grow having been taken over by other members since she became ill in June.

Mrs. Cooper belonged to several genealogical organizations including the National Genealogical Society and several regional organizations.  She was also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the War of 1812, Daughters of American Colonists, Magna Charta Dames, National Society of New England Women of Americans of Royal Descent.  Mrs. Cooper donated all of her research materials to the Carnegie Library in Bryan so that it will be available for all that might wish to use it to do their own research in finding their own ancestors.

She is survived by son, Clyde Russell Cooper Jr. and wife Vivian Easley-Cooper; grandchildren, Russell Wayne Cooper and wife Tina, Ronald Lee Cooper and wife Bonnie, Robin Denise Cooper-Gonzalez and husband Jose, Dianne Lynne Cooper-Reyes and husband Lupe, and Donna Jean Cooper-Adams and husband Robert; 17 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to Hospice Brazos Valley at 502 W. 26th St., Bryan, Texas 77803 or to Still Creek Ranch, 6055 Hearne Lane, Bryan, Texas 77808 or the memorial of your choice.

Source: Palestine Herald-Press 09-07-2003