WIlliam E. Cooper

William Ewell Cooper Jr. was born in Pinola, Miss., on Nov. 4, 1926, and was reared in Alexandria on Bayou Rapides. He died in Baton Rouge on Sunday, May 24, 2009, at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. He was 82 and the son of William E. Cooper and Sadye Kennedy Cooper, who were of Alexandria. After graduation from the Gulf Coast Military Academy in Gulfport, Miss., he served as a captain in the U.S. military during World War II, preparing for the invasion of Japan. He graduated from LSU in 1955, and then worked for 31 years in state government. He retired as an administrator of Social Security Disability. He was a master mason, formerly active in Alexandria and also in Baton Rouge. He is survived by a sister, Jean Cooper Choppin; children, Lou Ann Von Collin, Evan Ewell Cooper, Burton Larguier Cooper, of Knoxville, Tenn., and Sarah Cabell Cooper, of New Orleans; a special friend, Cleona ÒNonieÓ Parisi; and eight grandchildren. Visitation at Rabenhorst Funeral Home, 825 Government St., on Wednesday, May 27, from 10 a.m. until funeral service in the chapel at 1 p.m. A Masonic Ritual will be held at noon. Interment in Roselawn Memorial Park.