Marie Catherine Evelyn Cooper

Marie Evelyn Cooper was a master seamstress and clothes designer, Home Economics teacher, humanitarian, mom to many cats, crafter, traveler, square dancer, artist, and librarian at LaSalle Catholic High School in Milwaukie, Oregon, Tigard High School in Oregon, and for almost 20 years the librarian and major donor at Christ the King Catholic grade school in Milwaukie, Oregon.

While a librarian at LaSalle from the late 1960s to the late 1970s, she began teaching Home Economics classes as well, where she started an annual design and quilting group project.

In 1985, at Christ the King, she built up the library from a janitor closet to a full-service library and later became its first computer instructor when that technology started hitting schools. At CTK, she was the faculty member that taught students how to do a research paper. She inspired and educated a thousand students, probably more. She spent most of her CTK salary buying books for the library, and one of her greatest joys was attending the various book fairs. By her retirement, the library had over 10,000 books.

In 2015, Marie moved from her home of 49 years (that her husband built) into a new independent living facility. The “library” there was a stack of unlabeled books in the corner of a beautiful space. Marie designed a simplified organizational scheme for seniors and labeled over a thousand books to make it an easily accessible and attractive resource for all residents.

Back in the mid-60s, St Joseph the Worker (her family’s Catholic Church at the time) suffered a fire in the sacristy. All the altar garments and vestments were destroyed. Marie quickly researched the symbology and designed new items; then she sewed beautiful replacements herself.

In 1995, while her eldest son was deployed in the aftermath of the Bosnian Civil War, she responded to his plea for school supplies for the students on both sides of the cease fire line by sending $400 worth. When he returned in 2007 from Operation Iraqi Freedom and formalized an international humanitarian nonprofit – Schools To Schools Aid Project – she did the lion’s share of cleaning, organizing, and boxing the 1,400 boxes of donated used and new school supplies that were sent through American soldiers to students in Afghanistan, Horn of Africa, and Honduras. Again, she touched the lives of many needy children.

She was a self-taught family genealogist. She researched ship records, birth and death records in the US and Europe to discover her and her husband’s ancestry. With that knowledge she was able to reach out and make contact with other family members. She took great joy in hosting the children of our French cousins and traveling with them to Canada.

When her kids were grown, she started traveling to Europe and Canada, usually inviting one of her grandchildren to come along and explore with her. She also hosted high school students from Japan and China so that they could experience life and education in the US.

She was funny and feisty, devoted and disciplined, and she lived her life in service to, and as an inspiration for, others.

Marie Evelyn Cooper passed away at the age of 96 on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, at a memory care facility in Clackamas, Oregon. She is survived by her three children, David, William, and Laura, four grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. She was the wife of Eldon Carl Cooper, a Korean War veteran and carpenter, who preceded her in death.

Her funeral Mass will be held at Christ the King Catholic Church, 11709 SE Fuller Road, Milwaukie, OR, on Wednesday, September 18, at 11:00am.

ILO flowers, please donate to the Oregon Humane Society or Alzheimer’s Association.