I knew Jerry when we were in the Marines stationed in Iwakuni, Japan together.  He instantly became my best friend.  We visited each other occasionally over the years.  It saddens me to discover his passing.  My memories of him and his ever present smile will never fade.  Send Susan my best.

As I looked at your picture I remember the brother n sister memories we have shared in our life time.From our mothers early death to watching you slowly slip away from the ones you loved.  your life was cut too short, you had too much to give the family and so many friends you made in your short life. Yes you did need  18 more years. your family is slowly learning to do the things you use to do and moving on but not without thinking of the love and devotion you shared with them. There isn't a day goes by that I don't hear your laughter and that smile and remember the life and our brother and sister love for each other. I miss you and regret we didn't get to grow old together. One day we will all get to spend those precious moments together with you. Until then I will keep you in my heart sole and mind. May God and our Lord keep you in his arms. Your sthister ( as you said) Liliane. Ed says take care and keep doing that carpenter work he may need some hep soon.

It's been just under a year since his rich bass voice was stilled forever.  I think of him often, his humor, twinkling eyes, his energy and drive.

I take comfort in knowing his square dance equipment is being used to teach new dancers.  He makes the burdon of carrying the equipment lighter somehow.

Miss Ya Bro'

Mike Bentley

No Death

In one sense, there is no death.  The life of a soul on earth lasts beyond his or her departure.  You will always feel that life touching yours. That voice speaking to you.  The spirit looking out of others eyes.  Talking to you in familiar things they touched or worked with & loved as familiar friends.  They live on in your life and all others that knew them.

By Anoglo Patri

Dearest Jerry,

When I walked into your Celebration of Life on Sunday and saw the beautiful burgundy lace dress that Karen had made for the Fashion Show at the Colorado State Festival in Laramie, WY in June of 1990.  I started to remember all the things we did together and the times we shared over the past twenty-five years.  I could picture you and Karen standing by the covered wagon.  She used the dress again for the Fashion Show in 2000 and at the National Square Dance Convention in 2004 in Denver when you played Blackhawk Ben.

Thinking back across the years I recalled when Tom & I first met you & Karen in 1985, at your Square Dance graduation with Single Wheels in Longmont, CO.  We saw you at dances through the next four years but really got to know you and become friends when you worked with us on the 1990 Colorado State Festival.  I remember on Sunday following the Festival a small group of us including the Miller’s and Steve Hodder were saying goodbye in the parking lot of the University of Wyoming, we started practicing saying NO so we would not have to work so hard on a Festival again.  I thank God that we did not listen to ourselves as the next 20 years are filled with wonderful memories of working with you & Karen on the 1995, the 2000 and the 2005 Colorado State Festival’s as well as the 1997 & 2010 USA West Square Dance Convention’s and the 2004 Nationals Square Dance Convention in Denver.  We also worked together within the Northeast Colorado Square Dance Council and the Colorado State Square Dance Association, lots of dances, meetings, planning sessions and dinners.  In 1993 the four of us started publishing the Northeast Council Bulletin; we spent 13 eventful years as Co-Editors and had the privilege at the 2004 Nationals of hosting editors from across the country at the Publicity Breakfast.

Our friendship extended way beyond the world of Square Dancing.  We had the privilege of watching Dustin and Candi grow up, get married and have each of the precious grandchildren.  You loved them all so much it was a joy to watch you play with your children and grandchildren.  Tom & I were welcomed into your family and have shared many experiences both good and very stressful.  You were there for me when I lost both my parents.  We were there together as we said goodbye to good friends, Tim Cavaugh, and Eileen and John Milburn. Together we celebrated Birthday’s, Anniversary’s and Holiday’s.  We celebrated together when you were reunited with Kelly.

You were like my twin brother, exactly four months older then me; we remembered the same songs, the same events and developed a special bond.  My phone would ring at odd times and you would say a song title or actor whose name we were trying to remember.  When I started commuting to work in Denver some mornings as I was driving in the cell would ring and you would say wake up Susie.  I remember the day you learned that Dustin & Tiffiany were engaged you called and simply said my family is complete.  When you were sick you would call and we would talk and cry together.  Now my phone is strangely quite and I miss my friend’s voice…

Thank you Jerry for being my friend.  Thank you Jerry for being so understanding of Tom’s health problems, so patience including him in lots of things when some others did not.  Thank you Jerry for being yourself. Goodbye Jerry I love you and miss you, rest in the peace you so deserve!

Your Friend Sue

What do you say to someone that is gone? I would like to start by saying that I miss you so much!!!!! Daddy you were always there for me, even when I was a rebelious teen! You were my Rock, My Comfort and My Strenghth when I thought I had none! There was never a doubt in mind that you were proud to call me your daughter! It is so hard to think of all the things that we will now never get to do or see! I know that you are still proud and still with all of us, and these are the things we take comfort in now! Nothing will ever be the same with out you but life will go on with you in our hearts!! I Love You Daddy! Rest in Peace!!!

As many of you know Jerry and I meet on May 23, 1978.  We planned our wedding in four days with the help ofmy sisters and my folks.  We were married three weeks later on June 9th, 1978.  I will always love you.
Every year got better and better.  Nothing was easy through our lives together.  The hardest time ended up being March 3, 2008 when he got put in a wheelchair because of Cancer in his right hip.  Then he had surgery on March 28, 2008 to remove the tumor and things kept happening from their.
We tried to stay strong and work to fight the Cancer together.  That was not to be because on March 8, 2010 they found Cancer in his heart and things went downhill from there.  He tried hard to overcome it but that was not to be either.
We had many things we still wanted to do.  He wanted to see his ten Grandkids grow up, his kids mature and to give me eighteen more years of life together.  I will miss those years and my Husband, my lover and my best friend.  Someday we will be together again.

I first met Jerry December 28.  I thought Santa was going to bring me a doll for Christmas but instead I got a second brother.  He and I have been there for eachother through thick and thin for better or worst.  I will love him forever.  His one and only sister.

Karen and family:  Although I wrote one message,I want to again express my Sympathy at the death of Jerry.  He certainly had perseverance, as he had to have great pain.  He was very courageous. Knowing that one is going to die in a few weeks, was very hard for Karen and all the family. I do admire them!  Afterwards, is also terrible, but we must cope with it, using our memories of our loved one to get us through each day. 
   He is already missed. I wanted to send something to the State Square Dance Board, of which Jerry was the President, and so missed him already.
   The Celebration of his Life was wonderful-lots of good, honest words for a great man, lots of friends, lots of food.  A wonderful tribute.
   Jerry was always friendly and helpful, and it isn't fair that he should go, but only "God Knows", and they say "someday we will understand"!
   It was nice to see Karen last week at the Berthoud Barn Owls..the hardest thing for me, was square dancing-no partner, when you had had one for years; noone to ride with, driving, a partner, etc.  
   However, thru the years you get enough gumption to "ask a guy", and usually the ladies will share there's.
    Jerry was always nice about that..he would ask the single ladies to dance.
    We have all been sad since we found out about the tumor, and knew it would no doubt be a bad ending.  I admire the courage of you all.
    God Bless and Keep you!  LaVern Johnson - Red Rock Ramblers Square Dance, Lyons, Colorado

My greatest memeroy with pappa is when I first got to meet him and grandma.  We went to red lobster in Florida after we went and picked them up off the plane.  While they were visiting every morning I would wake up and pappa, grandma,and my mom would be in the kitchen drinking their coffee and talking.  I would walk into the kitchen and go to pappa and grandma and give them a big hup and say I Love You.  
I'm glad I got to meet the best of a good family.  Iknow pappa was hanging in there for as long as he could, but I'm glad he is in a better place and is watching over us every step of our lives.  He was the best pappa anybody could have.  Things wll be different without pappa, but shomehow we will all manage to hang in there and do the best that we can.  He loved to square dance and really loved his family.  Pappa will always be in are hearts and will never leave.  I will always remember the moments we shared.  I Love you pappa and rest in heaven.

"walk in sunshine"
 may you always walk in sunshine and god love around you flow, for the happinees you gave us, no one will never know.
 it broke our hearts to lose you, but you did not go alone, a part of us went with you the day god called you home, a million times we needed you, a million times we cried, if love could have only saved you, you never would have died.

Jerry Copeland's eulogy shared at the Celebration of Life May 2, 2010

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Mike Bentley.  My wife Beverly and I have known Jerry and Karen Copeland for a dozen years or more.  A couple of days ago a good friend of Jerry’s said; “But he was invincible!”  Yes, that’s the impression Jerry gave to his family, his friends and those he came in contact with.  Jerry had that rare combination of a steel will, tender compassion and flashes of brilliance that put the rest of us to shame.  His passing leaves us all with a Jerry shaped space in our memories, a space filled with …that look…that event…that voice…that hug.

We first met Jerry at a square dance outing in Burlington, Colorado, where he was singing with Sharon Sheets and Mike Darrah as part of the Wagonmasters, a square dance and country-western group.  Jerry left the stage a few minutes before, and when he stepped back on stage he wore an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow polka dot bikini.  Of course, there is nothing about Jerry that is itsy-bitsy or teeny-weeny, so I’ll leave that mental picture for you to fill in.

But that’s not where I want to start this recollection of Jerry’s life.  I want to start two years or so ago, when Jerry finally went to the doctor to see what that pain was in his hip.  It turned out to be a large, 20-pound tumor growing around his hip joint and part of his pelvis.  During the subsequent operation, surgeons removed the tumor, half of his pelvis and the hip joint.  Doctors told Jerry he had little chance of ever walking again.

Jerry and Karen named the tumor Lucifer.  Its personality fit the name.  For a while, it seemed Jerry was healing, and he started walking, but new cancer spots were discovered and dealt with by repeated radiation and chemo. 

Jerry took it all in stride.  While he groused about his human frailties, he still exhibited to his close friends that wonderful love of life and family.  

Then Lucifer turned mean.  In addition to robbing Jerry’s stamina and ability to walk normally, it took his occupation, his house, and many of his belongings.  It left him only two valuable possessions, a loving wife and family and his unstoppable spirit.  That spirit, I think, is probably what I’ll remember him for more than his beautiful bass singing voice, giving nature and fine carpentry.

Jerry and I spent a lot of time together when we worked on the 2004 National Square Dance Convention.  It took four years to get ready to host the 8500 dancers from all over the world who came to Denver that year.  In our close association, I saw another side to Jerry that leads me to believe he was “Born out of time”, two centuries too late.  It happened this way… 

Jerry and Karen were active in Colorado square dancing organizations and had been appointed assistant publicity directors for the convention, charged with many duties, including putting together an “invitational skit” to show off Colorado and all the convention events.  Jerry enlisted – maybe I should say drafted -- my help in writing the script.  We’d seen the skits of other conventions and decided -- well; we’d do things differently.  We needed a spokesperson and so Jerry “invented” one – Blackhawk Ben – the spirit of a fictional mountain man sent to “help” the convention planning stay on track.  It was very successful with Jerry playing the part to the hilt.  People were so curious about the character that we had to publish a back-story about him and we even used “Ben” as part of the convention.

It was only after the convention that I realized Jerry was living the part, not playing it.  The attributes he gave Blackhawk Ben, were his - the honor, ethics and victory over adversity the character displayed were those Jerry held in his own life.  Jerry was “Blackhawk Ben” trekking through the Rocky Mountains when the United States was a young nation.

But Jerry lived in this time, and made a good life for himself and his family.  They shared some of their stories about a larger than life man who did so many tasks well.

Candy told a story about when she was a young child, seven or so, and she rested in her dad’s strength.  Her older siblings were playing in the deep part of the pool that day, and Candy, being who she was, was not going to allow the older children to show her up.  So she walked out on the diving board and jumped into the water…Oh, did I tell you, she couldn’t swim a stroke at this point?  She almost drown before getting out of the pool, and that night she couldn’t stay asleep because of repeated nightmares of the incident.  So she went out and crawled up on Jerry’s lap as he was watching a television movie.  Now safe and protected, Candy soon fell asleep and she slept soundly through the night.  The movie Jerry was watching at the time was the horror movie “Puppet Masters”.  No monsters under the bed in the Copeland household, daddy wouldn’t allow it!

Dustin recalls working with his dad from a very early age.  Jerry had a way of being dad and father that earned the respect of his children without his demanding it. He exampled a deep work ethic and caring nature to them.  With those lessons, Dustin says his dad gave him the model to be a great husband and father.  
He recalls the two of them had a rhythm of working together that no one understood – they knew each other so well, little conversation was needed to get the job done.

Dustin’s wife Tiffany was part of the Copeland family from fifth grade on.  Tiffany was looking for a father figure, and found in Jerry a caring and nurturing strength in her young life.  She says even when she and Candy fought as teens, Jerry wouldn’t take sides, often laughing at the two, stopping any argument between them in its tracks.  Tiffany calls Jerry “dad” even though at the time she wasn’t a Copeland.  Her marriage to Dustin finally brought her into the family name she’d belonged to for most of her life.  Tiffany says the greatest memory she has of her “adopted” dad is his great love for his wife, Karen, their kids, including Tiffany, and of course Jerry doted on his grandkids…He was “Poppie” to them, after one of the youngest, struggling with the big word “grandfather” decided a short form was in order.

Jerry’s oldest daughter, Kelly lives in Florida.  She recalls a visit Jerry and Karen made to Florida to see them.  Kelly got to play tourist in hosting Jerry and Karen.  Jerry, always looking for a good laugh, posed in front of the Kennedy Space Center, where statues of astronaughts who have flown are by the main gate.  Jerry, with an eye to perspective, stood with an arm raised and hand extended just placing the distant statue on his palm, as if it were sitting there. 
 

Ashley, a 16 year old granddaughter composed a poem after hearing of Jerry’s death. It is entitled

"Still Missing Him" 

They say there is a reason, 
they say that time will heal; 
but neither time nor reason 
will change the way we feel.

For no one knows the heartache 
that lies behind our smiles, 
no one knows how many times
 we have broken down and cried.

we want to tell you something 
so there won’t be any doubt, 
you're so wonderful to think of 
but so hard to be without, 
we cannot bring the old days back, 
when we were all together ,

the family chain is broken now 
but memories live forever !!!!!

Granddaughter Alahna’s favorite story is one of a birthday celebration for Jerry.  They presented him a gift box that, once opened, had many more smaller packages wrapped inside.  It took Jerry forever to unwrap the small packages, and, as often happens, had all unwrapped before he found the one that contained his gift, a computer jump drive.   Jerry took the gag well, even though he ended up covered in paper wrappings.

Each one of us knew Jerry Copeland differently, yet we all knew the same person.  Jerry is, of course, all of these “people” combined.  Jerry is larger than any of our single memories, as is each of us.  

A final story about Jerry…

Toward the end of his life, Jerry asked me if God would be angry with him for playing “Blackhawk Ben”, a somewhat irreverent angel. I told him no, because the God I believe in created us with all our warts, pimples, and faults.  He laughs with us, cries with us, celebrates with us, he loves each and every one of us.  The fictional character Blackhawk Ben accepted life was a journey, a journey to explore creation in an attempt to find out about its Creator.  
 
Jerry accepted that, and although not invincible, is with God, walking unexplored trails with a strong, healthy body.

Karen and Family,
We just heard of Jerry's death last night.  Jane called me as soon as she heard.  I have dear memories of Jerry.  He was a very special person.  I am so sorry to hear of his death.  My love and prayers are sent to you and your family.  Ann - Knoxville, TN

Your family is in our prayers, God keep and bless you.

It's hard to believe that over 20 years ago, i met a great couple dancing.  My heart is with you always.  He will be missed.
Robert Wilkin

Dear Karen, Candi and Dustin and your families,  If we cannot get back in time for the Memorial Service today, we want you to know that all of you are close in our hearts and our prayers. After church we are making a trip to DIA and may not be with you in person.  Loved the photos of your precious family!  It brings back many a memory!  With our love and SEMPER FI, Margaret and Chuck

Karen and family, Wanted to let you know you are in our prayers. We are so sorry to here about Jerry. God will be with you now and forever.

Your neighbors,James & Tammy DeHerrera and family

Karen and family, wanted to let you all know that our thoughts and prayers are with you at this time. Losing a loved one is never easy and I know that God is watching over you and will get you all through this time. Jerry was quite the character and I remember meeting all of you at the Village Inn so many years ago. He is without pain now and is more than likely teaching some of the angels how to square dance. Take care of yourselves and each other now and rest in God's hands, they are very big. God Bless and love to all, I know I will see you again soon at work. Vicki and Les Cherry.

Karen and family,  Ron and I are truelly sorry for your loss.  You are in our thoughts and prayers.  We are unable to attend Jerry's services but know that our hearts will be with you.  God Bless you, the suffering is over and Jerry is in a much better place.
Ron and Kathy Abbott

Dear Karen and Family:  
   With Deepest Sympathy to all of you.  Jerry's death is indeed a great loss, to family, friends, square dancers, etc,
   Jerry was always upbeat and friendly.  He was a great worker and had perseverance and courage.  
   We still have the banner "Singles Without Partners" that you gave us years ago..maybe 25 or 30.  When did you start dancing? (I am not sure that is correct, but we put it up every year)
   When you started dancing, Jerry was "Hooked", and was a great asset to square dancing-calling, officers, ambassador, put on skits, and etc.
   He really enjoyed life and square dancing. He was a good friend to all, and will be sadly missed.
   I remember when he worked on the houses at Lyons Valley Park, which must have been in 1993 on.     
   God Bless and Keep You.

               LaVern johnson
               Red Rock Ramblers-Lyons

We know that GOD needed a square- dancing angel and he got the best!!!
Our prays goes with Karen and her family.  
With love  -  Wayne & Alma

AVIS DE DÉCÈS

Jerry Roy Copeland

28 décembre 1951 – 18 avril 2010

Stoddard Funeral & Cremation & Sunset Memorial Gardens

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