Woody Cooper

Memorial services to celebrate the life of Woody Cooper, 91, of Lufkin will be held Saturday, August 11, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. in the Carroway Funeral Home Chapel. Woody willed his body to Baylor School of Medicine for research, and his remains will be cremated.

Woodrow ""Woody"" Cooper was born March 14, 1922 in Pocahontas, Arkansas to Edgar and Lottie Belle (Hibbard) Cooper, and died Tuesday, August 7, 2012 in a local hospital, after a brief illness. Woody was the fifth of seven children. Orphaned at age 5 he, along with three brothers and three sisters, moved to Anadarko, Oklahoma where they lived with other family members.

Woody enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard upon graduating from high school, and trained K-9 dogs for the Army and Marines during World War II. He also saw sea duty on the Great Lakes. After the war, he returned to Weatherford, Oklahoma and attended Southwestern State College on a football and wrestling scholarship.

In 1950, the 45th Division was activated and ordered to prepare for deployment to Korea. Woody was a 2nd Lieutenant in the 158th Field Artillery, and left the University of Oklahoma, where he was working on his Master's degree, to deploy with his unit. While at Fort Polk, Louisiana, he met and married his wife Patsy. His unit deployed to Korea shortly thereafter in 1951, where he saw front-line duty as a forward observer.

When discharged in 1953, Woody began a long career of coaching and teaching. Beginning in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, he also coached at Tulsa Webster, Fairland, Hominy, and Duncan, Oklahoma. While at Hominy, he led them to the state finals in 1958.

Taking a respite from coaching in 1962, Woody took a position with Southland Life Insurance in Dallas. Recruited by Field Scoville, the Executive VP, he became a field trainer working with new agents. He traveled Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana in this capacity.

Induced to re-enter coaching, in 1968 Woody returned to Hominy, Oklahoma and led that team to a state finals, and the next season to the state quarterfinals. In the three years at Hominy, Woody amassed an amazing 30-7-1 record.

After his success there, Woody was hired by James Moffett in 1971 to come to Lufkin and help rebuild the program. When Lufkin established two Middle Schools, Woody coordinated the work of six young coaches in the program to prepare the student athletes for the varsity program.

In 1973, Woody took the job of sports coordinator and director for the Lufkin State School. In 1975 he transferred to become the director of the Foster Grandparent Program at the State School. In 1977 he, along with Dr. Ben Dickerson of the Stephen F. Austin State University Sociology/Gerontology Department, established the Foster Grandparent Jamboree. The Jamboree hosted FGP groups from around the country for a three day meeting at locations across the nation. The Jamboree was such a success, and Woody worked so tirelessly at making everyone welcome, that in 1985 the members and attendees renamed the program the ""Woody Cooper Memorial Foster Grandparent Jamboree"", the name it goes by to this day.

As busy as he was with full-time work, Woody always found time to indulge his passion: fishing! Combining pleasure with business, Woody wrote outdoor and fishing columns that ran for many years in The Lufkin Daily News and Diboll Free Press. He also authored articles that were submitted and published in regional and national fishing publications, such as The American Angler and Southwest Outdoors, and was one of the co-founders of the Bass Star magazine and fishing tournament and The Lake News, a monthly newspaper concerned with Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend lakes. At his most prolific, he was published in 27 different magazines and pamphlets. He went on to produce and participate in several short fishing videos with such personages as John Fox and Golden Richards.

Not satisfied with this double life, Woody also engaged in another seasonal passion: teaching swimming lessons. Each spring would find him in a pool teaching youngsters as old as 2 the basics, as well as ""children"" as young as 68.

After finally officially retiring, Woody loved to work in his yard. He could often be seen riding his beloved mower, not just in his yard, but in neighbors' yards and vacant lots in the neighborhood. On the Saturday before his death, he mowed his yard along with two neighbors' yards.

Surviving him is his wife of 61 years, Patsy Cooper of Lufkin; sons, Jerry Cooper and wife Paula of Muskogee, Oklahoma, Mike Cooper of New York City, New York, and Steve Cooper of Lufkin; daughter, Melissa Cooper of Lufkin; granddaughters, Jody Cooper of Tyler, and Jennifer Seely and husband Matt of The Woodlands; and beloved and adored great-grandchildren, the twins Cooper and Caleb Seely, and their younger brother Campbell Seely of The Woodlands.

Preceding Woody in death are his parents and six siblings, along with his youngest son, Duke Cooper.

Based upon his love of growing things, in lieu of flowers, Woody hoped that friends would plant a tree or a flowering plant in his memory.

Memories and condolences may be added at www.carrowayfuneralhome.com.

Carroway Funeral Home, Lufkin, directors.