Cooper Sisters Re-Visited

Reverend A.B. Cooper Memorial Fund

PRESS RELEASE

For more information, contact:

Matthew Porter, Ministry assistant, Baptist Student Center

573-335-6489 or bscsemo@gmail.com

                                               Reverend A.B. Cooper, who helped found the Baptist Student Center in the 1930s.

            Jane Cooper Stacy, formerly director of alumni services at the University and director of development, recently gave a donation to the ministry of the Baptist Student Center on campus in memory of her father, the late Reverend Allen B. Cooper, of Charleston, MO.    The Reverend Cooper was the first executive secretary of the campus ministry and Jane Stacy was the first summer missionary sent out by the Baptist Student Center.   She conducted Vacation Bible Schools in Washington and Oregon during the summer of 1957. Another daughter of Reverend Cooper, Betty Cooper Hearnes, served on the ministry’s board for many years.

The fund for the donation, named after Reverend Cooper, will be used to defray the cost of a Sunday-night meal at the Center which is open to all students on campus, with particular emphasis on international students.  The meal is free of charge.  The idea of the gift in her father’s honor stemmed from his thought that when people sit down together over a meal, “we feed the body, the spirit of a person and the soul of the participant.” The start-up gift will enable the meal ministry to continue for the first semester of the year and expand to include more international students.

This ministry to international students was started last year by Matthew Porter, Ministry Assistant, and the meal draws approximately 25 students each week to the Center.   The ministry has been a part of a widely-expanding program aimed at meeting practical needs of the campus constituency. 

The Sunday-night meals often include traditional meals prepared by international students themselves.  Last year, students enjoyed Egyptian, Chinese, Sri Lankan, and Bangladesh dishes, among others.   Baptist Student Center Director Dr. Bruce Gentry is pleased with the impact the dinners have had.  “Our Sunday evening meals are like an oasis,” Gentry said, “a place where students can relax, enjoy a unique cuisine and make new friends.” He added, “And we learn to bridge cultures of understanding.”

To learn more about this international ministry, or to make a contribution for expanded funding of the ministry, contact the Baptist Student Center at 573-335-6489 or bscsemo@gmail.com. The Center also hosts weekly student luncheons, Bible studies, and academic courses.

Come by the table!

I love living in Cape Girardeau!  You know people and they know you!  Last night Charlie and Judy Wiles took me to Dalhousie for a birthday dinner!  We have been friends forever!

All night long other people came up to the table, stood there, and we talked:  Judy Farris, Ray and Ann Ritter, Linda and Hugh Tewes, Robin Cole and his wife, bill Holland and Mike Hudson, a Texas alumnus!   Strange that all of those conversations centered around a commonality!

I love the Cape. It is uniquely mine!

It is raining cats and dogs today!

I came downstairs this morning and it is raining cats and dogs!  Immediately, I knew I couldn't even go out and get the sopping newspaper for a bit, and it was a cinch I couldn't do half of the 17 things on my list for today which I meticulously made out last night.  So I drank two cups of coffee and took a Motrin.  (When it rains, my knees feel it and so does my left hip.)   Morton's Salt Company used to have a slogan on their box, "When it rains, it pours!"   But what it did, when it rained, was clot in the box!

I grew up in Mississippi County and the farmers lived for rain, as did their crops.   There was almost jubilation over a downpour.  I would go with my dad to visit his church people and we would pull into the driveways of Earl Presson, Bill Thompson, Mr. Elmore, Allen and Ruth Edwards and they would come out to the car to tell us how much rain they got!

So what did they all mean,  "It rained cats and dogs".   Don't think that they knew that the expression came from Jonathan Swift's book of polite conversation of 1738 when he said, "I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain 'cats and dogs'. "   Refers to a poor sanitation system after a flood when deceased cats and dogs and....rabbits and hens, and old newspapers and disease ridden "stuff" would remain in the streets for weeks.

I'm changing my expression, as of this moment, to "It's raining buckets outside."

An ethical dilemma awaits me today!

I don't want to be in my shoes today but I can't walk out of them or give them to someone else.  If I could, I would!   I have to do something that someone had to do for me (or to me) years ago and I know how it feels like to be slapped in the face for naivete!   That's what I have to do today.   I have been approached by a genuine caring student who is trying to raise funds for an international student to stay here in this country and he has brought me a sheaf of papers to look over about the need of this student.

Unfortunately, it brought back memories of years ago when I faced the same sheaf of papers for another international student and was told that it was a sham by the student authorities and not to give the student a dime.  It was the same con job:  the mother had had surgery and she could not pay so the student had to be deported.   The company puts out the word to the families that Americans will pay the freight and their student can go to school free.   And it worked on me!

Now, I face the dilemma of telling my experience to a person who is kind and compassionate and warning him of the dilemma.   Not every story someone tells you is true;   that is a lesson that all of us "schmucks" have to learn.   Maybe I should think of this episode today as a teaching moment!   I still wish I could avoid it but I am not willing to shuck over $1700 for the experience of non-teaching!

Negotiating with God!

I have spent a lifetime negotiating with God and I continue to play the game with him!  Despite the fact that I taught young couples for years and that I actually have a seminary degree, I no longer attend a church but I bargain and negotiate with God about it!  I still believe that there is a God and he cares for me!

And I search everywhere for justification! Like Abraham, leading patriarch!  God had had enough of the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:20-32) and he was going to take them out!  But Abraham kept lowering the stakes.  Finally he got the stakes lowered to ten righteous people.

Roger Karban writes:  "From an early age,one learned and practiced the art of negotiating, and Abraham demonstrates this skill."  If it was okay for Abraham, I am claiming it for me!  God, just keep your hand on me, and take care of me and mine and I'll just keep playing these justification games and negotiating with you.   You have never failed me.  I wish I could say the same!

Call me Margaret Jane!

My mother had two close friends in Charleston mo:  Glenda Margaret Brock and Frances Howard Hill!  When I was born, the sixth girl, she wanted to name me after Glenda so I got her second name which everyone ignored after the naming!  All but Frances Hill who Always called me "Margaret Jane" after her beloved friend!

And that is part of the reason that is was so special when my sister, Julia Warren, gave me the Fostoria she had bought from Frances when Frances was selling some of her dishes!  I love remembering all of the past world of Frances and Glenda and Charleston and sisters who give and share!

Yes, I am proud to be Margaret Jane again and will remember, thanks to Julia Edith, every time I raise a glass of stemware!   Will someone, anyone, just infrequently, call me Margaret Jane just to help me remember where "I " came from?

Singing for my supper!

Last night I took the quartette of singers out who sang at my party!  Trudy Lee sang melody and worked with me in development,  Vicki Boren, Charlie Vaughn and Eric Scott, all Semo alums!  We had a fun time!  I was the only one who sang a note and I sang three notes of "bill Grogans Goat". Just to prove to them that I knew it!

Love music and loved the night!

Almost back to normal

What is normal anyway?   I learned thru all the festivities of recent days, that what I considered to be family normalcy was not other people's idea of normalcy.  I wanted to have a party that featured good music, fun and frivolity.  We did.  Music hit the spot.  Other people had never seen a party like this and they are still commenting.  I went out to dinner last night with Joan Gohn and she said the same thing --"Jane, you grew up in this;  other families never had a musical production at a family party! "  So why do I pretend that we are normal;  I don't even wish for it.

I am going through thank you notes by the package and phone calls until I had to go get a new phone on which I could hear.   I am packing away cards after reading them again and again.   If someone takes the time to go get a card, I want to read it and think about that person.   I may not acknowledge all the cards physically but I do mentally.  And in some cases, spiritually.

But normalcy  --it's not what it is cracked up to be!   Nor is it an aspiration of mine.   Does it lead to happiness.   Maybe.  Is it normal to even be thinking about this?   I don't think so.

Leigh Hearnes Hammond

Love the Irish candlesticks which I opened last night.    What a great piece to put on the mantel!   I love it.  When I went to Ireland, we toured the area and I came close to buying them then but my Visa was already overstocked.   

Leigh, so happy you and Catherine came for my shindig.   It made me so happy!   

Playing in 4 flats

I was never good at playing the piano!  My sister, Rose Marie, 17 months older, was a prodigy!  I never practiced nor did I care a hoot about it!   And I could never play four flats!

Daddy made me play once at Wyatt Baptist and I told him I couldn't play anything in four flats!  He told me that he had just learned that Cora Aldridge could not be there and to pick out the songs I could play and give him the list!  Like a fool, I fell for it!

He came to rostrum, tore up my list before my eyes and every song he picked out had four flats!  And I survived the experience!  Now when I play a hymn by ear, I play it in four flats!!

Coping and sleeping

Went to bed early last night but woke up at 3 - bright and bushy tailed-Mama would say--so after a bit I just got up and decided to wait for dawn with coffee in hand!  And things and recollections were beginning to dawn on me!

This has been a wonderful celebration for me and I have been given way more than I was ever entitled to!  But it just keeps on!  Last night I went over to Mary Ann Delines house to take a belated wedding present and she was standing there with a birthday cake for me and a gift bag!  Whew!

The party is not over!

What a wonderful party!  Music and crowd of over 200 were amazing!   Big family group who came to remember and party.  It will take days to assimilate it all! I would change nothing!  No regrets!

Birthday party day

It has been a blast so far!  Bring on the day!

Anticipation

The kids are coming in today and I am out of my gourd.   I am in total anticipation for all the events that are taking place this weekend and the people who are coming in and out.   I will never have another birthday that is as big as this one and I intend to enjoy it all.   It brings back all the memories of each person who comes--happy and sad.    I remember who will not be here this week of birthdays but I let my mind go quickly to all the happy times we have had.

Focusing on the sad gets you deeper in the morass of feeling sorry for yourself.   I have had a great life; I have no reason to mourn for what could have been.  My word, in a little family in a small town, we had the giant of a father in the pulpit, a brother-in-law in the governor's chair, a husband in the presidency of the area college and on and on.  We have truly been blessed and continue to be every day.

Life does not suck for us.  We have sucked up a plenty of life!   Happy birthday to the July birthdays --past and present.

Death of Evonne Wagoner, Faculty Dames, SEMO

I shall never forget going to my first Faculty Dames meeting after Bill Stacy joined the Speech Faculty here at SEMO.  Pearl Scully, the wife of President Scully, ran the meeting in a gloved, firm hand and those who had been in constant attendence during the years, took care of the new people who ventured in.   I had no choice in the matter:   Dr. Scully and I were both from Charleston;  I would be in attendance.

They discussed business and they did not take kindly to my kind of joking around.   I learned that when no one laughed at my attempts at humor, even after the second try.   But Evonne Wagoner got me through the training....along with Elnora Michel, Helen Collins, Virginia Goodwin, Merry Gay Lorberg and a few others who were brave enough to take me on.  They took Lauchette Low on at the same time so they had their hands full with the both of us.

Then they found out that I could not knit,  no sew a button on anything,   No stitchery or craft of any kind, for me.   Did I "play the piano like my sisters?"     No, I answered, "I can only play 'My Jesus I love Thee'." which no one but a Baptist could ever know.  So what did I do besides raise three children !

Well, Dames of the Faculty, I could cook and I announced it and they realized that it was one true statement. 

It saved my bacon.  Thanks, Evonne, for your many, many kindnesses to me!  You and Graham mean the world to me.

Arthur Ashe Courage Award

I went on Facebook this morning and read two quotes from Robin Roberts.   I seldom watch her on television but I know she has been fighting cancer and continues to show up for work.   She has recently won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award so she knows what it takes to keep going when, I am certain, she would like to face a private world in her private way.  To do otherwise, takes courage.

Two different "friends" wrote of her comments on FB:  "It's not what we accomplish everyday;  it's what we overcome."   I had to read this twice to put it in focus.   I like making lists and checking them off twice.   But to continue going down the list means overcoming all the other distractions that confront us.   We have to overcome the world to keep the list going and checking off the list a reality.   So I agree with her statement after considering it.

The second quote is:  "When fear comes, let faith open the door."   I love that simple phase.   It takes courage to open the door when you don't know what or who is waiting on the other side.  Sometimes, I am certain, that she would like to stay in bed all day and greet no one but she puts on her wig (perhaps) and does her bidding.  She continues to open the door....to the waiting world....and that takes courage for each of us.   God bless you, Robin Roberts!

Meeting the new people!

I went out to dinner last night with Greg and Diana Rogers-Adkinson and heard them speak about being here a year!   She is dean of education and he is in development!   I never thought how easy it would be to welcome new people without telling them, in a hundred ways, how much more I knew about this place than they did!  Because I don't!

I've been gone five years and most of my "cronies" are retired and loving it! So Greg and Diana, full steam ahead!  It is your time at this place and pay no attention to any advice IWill give you!  I won't know what I am talking about!

It was a fiery day!

I started out the day okay.  Then it got worse.   Some people came by and wanted my help in writing something for a funeral and I did that.  Then another person called and said that a body had been fished out of a river who had a connection with a person I knew.  Then Debbie came by and told me that Joy Brewer had died who always did my interior painting and we were friends.   So it was pretty down at that point.

Then my Broadway Prescription delivery man came by and said, "Did you see all that smoke and fire?  Dempster is on fire and burning down."  Yes, I could see it from 2 blocks away and all I could think of was that that was the location of my 75th birthday party which was to be held on Sunday, 6 days away!   So I went to the television and watched and took messages about the building and the party location.

But I went to bed and slept like a log --my Dad's child--it didn't matter how bad things were that day.   He slept like a bear in a cave.  And so did I.   Parties can be moved and deaths come.  Some news is bad and some is good.  But you still crawl into the bed and get ready for a new day, fire and all!

Returning to Malden

II went to Malden yesterday for the honoring of Virginia Hoehn by the historical association and saw so many long time friends!  It was a time of remembering when we lived there; Sara was born while we lived there!

Her son,Jeff, was there!  Steve, her other son who played ball for bill, has Parkinson's and was not there!  A good time was had by all.

Prejudice is not short-lived!

The verdict came in as predicted last night.   Mr. Zimmerman, white guy and neighborhood watch person, shot and killed a black 16 year old, Trayvon Martin, clad in a hoodie, as he was walking back to his home in the neighborhood.   A jury of six women found Zimmerman "not guilty".  Each side had their version of what happened that night.   What part did innate prejudice have on one side or both sides?   What part will it continue to have as the press continues to shine light on the issues?

There are no simple answers in my mind.   Am I prejudice?   Can't deny it but mostly out of ignorance and fear.   If I walk down the street at dusk and a bunch of "thugs" walk toward me, I don't see color or lack of it.  I see "thugs" who might grab my purse or my keys and I see no protection for me to latch onto.  What would I do if I had a gun?   I don't know because I am not a gun owner and I am prejudiced against laws that allow the less-than-good guys to carry them.  I am against all concealed carrys and that contributed to the death of this 16 year old.

Predudice requires constant examination of one's soul!   If this verdict helps even one person accomplish this, it will be useful.   I understand the pain of the parents.   I understand the fear of this 29 year old who was sort of a vigilante for justice although he never explained his reasons on the stand for us to judge for ourselves.  And I understand prejudice.   I am constantly there fighting it in myself.

Putting the picture of a life together

I didn't even know the name Dr Trevin Mayabb two months ago and I haven't met him yet! But I'm digging into his life because he is receiving the Dr Jim Cooper Scholarship from Missouri delta and I like to be a part of the lives of all of the scholarship recipients which bear our name:  1 has Daddy's name, 3 have my name and now two have Jim's!

Trevin Mayabb is married to Nichole Mayabb who is also md.  They were married in 2007. They both attended Un of Mo med school and are doing residencies in Temple, Texas!  He is son of cal and Paulette Parr of Sikeston and late Gary Mayabb of east prairie!  Nichole is from Jackson.

Little pieces of life come fitting together!

Ford and Sons

Last night I went to dinner with Jerry and Margaret Ford at Port cape to talk music at birthday party!  We had a good time laughing as always!

Our families are connected besides Ford and Sons funeral home which I've already set up!  I worked with Don and Betty worked with Jerry!   So he's kind of family!  

That's what I like about living here so long!  It all becomes family!

History revisited!

I am a history major!  On the Board of Kellerman foundation where the Missouri State Flag was made!  I went to Board meeting last night!  Pictured are:  bill Hart of State Historical Society , Chris Kinder who is studying an endangered site in Bloomfield and dr Mary Ann Kellerman!

History is important to the soul!  I love to think about preservation!  It's the reason I write this blog!  I preserve a part of myself for posterity!

So I press on toward an indefinable mark!

Harriett Goodin Small, friend for life

I don't ever remember when Harriett was not my best friend --long before we used initials to BFF.   We would go to show every Saturday --rain or shine --and then go to Saliba's' for a milk shake or coke or we would find somone with wheels and go to Johnie's Drive In.   She fought every battle for me and she was scared of no one!  If someone went after me, I would have Harriett sic 'em.  And she would.  And still will!

Last night I called her and we picked up where we left off the last time.  She is the only person in the world, besides my children, who I know who will always be there for me.  I don't have to wonder if she will sell me out;  it will never happen!   The difference is that she still is in sic' em mode if provoked.  I tell her things that have happened in my recent life and her retort is,  "I don't trust him/her.   He has hurt you before!  You can't go thru that again! "  And her sic'em antenna comes on strong.   And I laugh and remember!

Best friends are hard to come by!  I wouldn't take anything for Harriett Goodin.   Okay, so she thought that Rex Allen, cowboy star, was more handsome than Charles Starrett "The Durango Kid"!  He wasn't but she will never admit that....even now!     Oh yeah, did I say she was unshakeable in her loyalty!  If I were you, I wouldn't test her!  You will draw blood or a stub.   She is still lethally dangerous if provoked!

Reached the end of my stack of things to do today!

And it was great!    Heather is coming to work at 5:00 and nothing makes me scurry than the need to get organized so that I can get the most work out of someone else. So I have worked all day and I feel good aot the stack.   This birthday party makes me happy!

I don't know what new project I will take on but I will take on something.   I can't believe I will be 75 years old.

Elephants fighting!

There is an old Kenyan proverb which says, "When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers."  I heard that today for the first time! I have not been able to get it out of my mind since!  It is earth-shattering in its impact!   So what does it say to me!

When fights erupt, things and people who are in its proximity start to deteriorate that have absolutely nothing to do with the fight.  Innocent people and things suffer as a consequence.  And the fighting continues oblivious to the fact that the innocent are the harmed!

So I must ask myself,  Am I the elephant fighting other elephants or do I see that the grass is suffering from a drought of hate that is accomplishing nothing in the end for anyone!  I am sorry for any part I have played in this elephant fight!   The grass does not look greener for any of the elephants involved!     It is way past time to plant more grass seed and irrigate the barren ground with forgiveness!    This elephant regrets lashing at the other elephants and, more than that, I hate the barrenness of the ground that has been left behind in the aftermath of the fight!

Hold your breath and cross your fingers!

I arrived home after a great wedding and family time to the news that we had an offer on the rent house.   I could not believe my ears.  I have had it on the market for one week.   Kara, my realtor, came this morning and brought me the offer and we made a counter offer which I signed.  Now I have to wait until tomorrow night at 5:00 to see if he takes my counter -offer.  I am getting excited to think of the implications for the possibility --no more paying insurance, having the yard cut, paying the utilities.  Wow!  Let me get out from under the burden of my unselfish, stupid act..

So I have gotten in and worked like sixty on all my stuff.  Talked to my niece, Leigh, and told her all about the wedding.  She gets into stuff like this.   So does Sara who made me buy all kinds of stuff to show the house to its best.

So I will wait and hope.  God, you have been good to me these last days!   I'm not saying or implying that I deserve it;  I'm just saying, it feels good!

And Shad Burner, you sold me the house as I demanded.  You and Kara and I will go out for drinks and celebrate when it actually happens!   I feel like the shackles are coming off!

More wedding scenes

I am home recovering!

The wedding -a done deal !

It is over!  It was worth it to see Sara and Colin do the mother -son dance!  Loved seeing it all!  My cell phone ran out of battery as did my body!

What a day !

Driving to Cincy, going to a wonderful dinner, seeing Colin and Adrienne and their friends, sucking up wine and now back in bed in hotel!    I'm beat !

https://www.facebook.com/events/479914805425209/

It's a case of friendship!

I went out to River Campus to eat lunch with Evelyn Boardman today!  We are kindred spirits:  she visits Jennie each week, and she is huge Democrat:  if u are her friend, u r her friend!   We like each other and our company!   It's nice to be together every time!

She says Jennie is not ready to give up the ghost but Hospice is not going to come forever.

Tired of Closed mindedness!

First, I am tired of watching the George Zimmerman trial this morning and it's on every channel.  I have made up my mind that he is a big scaredy-cat white guy who likes authority and dislikes people who "don't know their place".   He aimed to teach that punk his place that night because he had the weapon.   So, whatever the court says, I'm stuck with that opinion until they show me otherwise.  And I'm forced to look at a lot of the evidence because nothing else is on.

So I flip through to the remaining channels --athletics and conservative religion.   Not into either one.   I see a program this morning about a black conservative preacher who announced, "One of the greatest mistakes America made was to allow women the opportunity to vote."  You got some nerve, preacher man!   And you don't think half the country would say the same about the civil rights fight  --did you see the decision last week that the Supreme Court handed down!    But you got your vote and now you think another group should be denied their vote!  You have some nerve non-preacher man!  Did anyone ordain you or did you take up your mantel on your own!

I'm hot.   But I'm guilty too!   I never let the television stop on any religious program of any kind--I don't care what women preachers say about how God spoke only to them --by the way, I know for a fact that he did not and does not speak only to them.   I won't even watch shows where preachers who will not admit that they are the most conservative Republicans in the world parade out their supposed holiness.   I have the solution for these "phonies"--my name for them.  Change the "Tea Party" slogan to "Whiskey Party" and they will jump off the bandwagon immediately  --hey, this might hurt my image of holiness.  Not as bad as it is already hurt in my mind, Unholy Joe.

Okay, I am done with the preaching!

Cancer, is it geographical ?

Circumstances and heresay run together!  I have two good friends, joy Brewer who paints my house, and Dr David Crowe , who just recently met up with Mark Stacy at Duke University, who have the same deadly cancer and (Pictured is David's photography) they live and work just houses from each other!  It's the talk in circles of my friendship !    Duke is supposed to be studying it!  If it's true, there goes a neighborhood and fast!