About Me

I was born in November 19, 1948 to Samuel Joseph Cooper and Dora Alice Karr (Cooper). My father was a farmer and a logger. We moved from Gurdon when I was around six years old. I have attended a total of seven schools. I was the eleventh of fourteen children. My twin Molly Cooper (Shaw) is the twelveth.  I had nine sisters and four brothers. At this time I have lost three sisters and three brothers. I lost my mother and father in 1980 (father) mother (1983). I have five sisters living and one brother. I have a lot of nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews and even some great-great neices and nephews. That is what happens when you come from a large family.

I have hoed cotton, picked and pulled it. Pulling cotton is when you pull the whole bulb that has the cotton in it. The hoeing is done in the spring, the picking in the late summer, and the pulling when the weather turns cool. Some of the schools I attended would let you out in the spring for the hoeing, and the late summer for picking. They would hold school during the winter and summer when there was not a lot of field work to be done.

My twin sister and I was the first to graduate in our family. We graduated from Hughes High School in Hughes, Arkansas. It is close to Forest City and not too far from West Memphis. After we graduated my twin and I came to Gurdon to stay with our older sister and her family. We worked as waitress. That was our first job. We moved out on our own in the latter part of 1967. My sister met a man and got married in 1968. I met and married his brother in 1970. We had a son in 1971 and another one in 1972. We had a daughter in 1980 and another son in 1988. We have seven grandsons and four granddaughers. I lost my husband last year to cancer. We were married for almost 42 years. I still miss him. My twin divorced her husband after 33 years of marriage. She remarried this year to a man who is really good to her and loves her very much.

I have worked at two sewing factories (Levis Strauss and Vasserette). I was supervisor of sanding at Value line. Value line was a factory that made furniture for motels and hotels. I worked there for almost 8 years. Then I got hired at Scroll Technologies in Febuary of 1993. I worked there until June of 2012. Danfoss a foreign company had bought out Scroll Technologies. They sent some of the jobs we were doing to India and China. I worked in the engineering lab putting bolted shells together for engineers to test. Some of these engineers were from India and China. They were a lot of nice people. I still call them friends and I believe they still think of me as a friend too. Some of them lost their jobs also. They are really smart and have found good jobs here in the United States. They helped me a lot when I was taking classes at Ouachita Technical College. I graduated from OTC with an Associate Degree in 2009. I am the only one of my sisters and brothers who has attended college.

I am now taking classes at Henderson University to become a teacher.  Some of the classes are hard for me, but I have classmates who help me sometimes when I need it. Sometimes I just need a word of encouragement and so do they. We are all learning new things and I like it. I like especially the technology courses. I have a fellow student named Beth Brazil that has shown me some things. I really appreciate the input from all my classmates. They make me feel like I can do this. I was afraid at first. I am a lot older than them, but they have been very helpful. I like learning and that is what I want to be able to share with the students I teach. I want them to know you are never get too old to learn something new. I understand how they feel, because these young people are learning new things just as I am learning new things. I know it does not matter whether you are old or young, when your brain is introduced to new things, it has to work hard to figure things out.   

I have told my friends about me doing a blog. I am going to give them my link so that they will be able to follow me. I also have let my family members know and they are going to follow me on blogging. I hope I can do all of these things right. If I have problems I know that Mrs. Benton will be there to help me out. She is really smart on this technology stuff. I am looking forward to learning a lot more. I know how to do power point (a little), do a prezi, do a website, and now a blog. Hey! your brain can expand and let you learn a lot.