GARY WAYNE COOPER

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Gary Wayne Cooper, 64, of Cooter passed away Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, in Hayti, Mo., at the Pemiscot Memorial Nursing Center. He was born Sept. 8, 1953, to Wayne Peery Cooper and Ellen Louise Ausburn Cooper. He lived his entire life in Cooter and the Oak Ridge Community except for the past 2 1/2 years. He graduated from the Cooter High School class of 1972 and was a member of the Cooter United Methodist Church for more than 50 years, serving a number of years as Sunday School Secretary. As a youth, he was a proud member of Boy Scout Troop 98 of Cooter, where he attained the rank of Life. He was one of very few in the district to earn and receive the Scout’s God & Country Award. He was also a member of the Order of the Arrow, participating in many scouting camps and long hikes. While a youth and young man, he was very active in hunting, fishing and trapping. He was an excellent quail hunter. He was also greatly interested in genealogy. As a teenager, he began collecting old pictures and family history information. He wrote many letters to relatives in order to preserve the family’s history.

Mr. Cooper was preceded in death by his parents, Wayne Peery Cooper and Ellen Louise Ausburn Cooper; one sister, Carol Sue Cooper, and grandparents, Carl Cooper and Nellie Jane Peery Cooper and Jesse Vernon “Dick” Ausburn and Allie Browning Ausburn.

Survivors of Mr. Cooper include two brothers, Stanley W. Cooper and Ann of Osceola, Ark., and Paul E. Cooper of the Oak Ridge Community; one nephew, Jesse Cooper of the Oak Ridge Community; one niece, Erin Cooper of Seattle, Wash.; two aunts, Imogene Cochran of Oak Ridge and Kathleen Ward of Gosnell, Ark.; three uncles, Tim and Sherry Ausburn of Steele, Lawrence and Bonnie Ausburn of Paris, Texas, and Jerry and Terri Ausburn of Cooter; nine first cousins and a host of other relatives and friends.

Funeral services for Mr. Cooper were held 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21 at Powell Funeral Home with Rev. Todd Holman officiating. Interment followed at Mitchell Number Eight Cemetery. Visitation was held from 10 a.m. until the time of the service. Pallbearers were Steve Reid, Todd Campbell, Mike Lynn, Steve Robinson, Keith Reid and Mark Brackin. Honorary pallbearers were Jerry Brown, Joe Lynn, Tommy Campbell, Gary Robinson, Tom Winter, Witt Smith Jr., Mike Lawler, John H. Smith, Carl Avis, John Spence, Larry Parrott, William Burse and Calvin Brandenburg.

Powell Funeral Home of Steele was in charge of arrangements.