Janet Felton Cooper

COOPER Mrs. JANET FELTON COOPER Kennedy White House staffer / Volunteer/ Mother /Grandmother Mrs. Janet F. Cooper, a resident of Alexandria at the same address for almost 50 years, died January 30, 2017. She was 86 years old. Janet Felton was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 4, 1930. In 1945, she was a Massachusetts State Junior Tennis Champion. She attended the Chapin School in New York City and was a 1947 graduate of St. Timothy’s School in Stevenson, Maryland. After high school, she spent a year in Paris, where she became fluent in French and was later presented to Queen Elizabeth II in London, England. She returned to New York City where she worked for Dr. Howard Rusk at the Rusk Institute for Rehabilitation. From 1961 until 1962, at the request of her former Chapin classmate, Jacqueline Kennedy, she worked as Secretary to the Fine Arts Committee as part of the White House Restoration Project. It was there that she met Army Major Richmond J. Cooper, a White House social aide. They married on September 29, 1962. They lived in Paris, France for their first three years of their marriage, where they had their first two children. They moved to Alexandria, Virginia in 1967. In 1971, they had their third child. During her years in Alexandria, Mrs. Cooper enjoyed careers as a travel agent and real estate agent and was a volunteer for more than 15 years at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She also played doubles tennis twice a week at Army Navy Country Club until the age of 80. She is survived by her children, Joshua, Hope, and Phineas; her daughter-in-law, Alisa; her grandchildren, Eryn and Janet; and her sister, Jennifer Cabot.