Kathryn Mae Cooper, 91, Selma, died Friday, May 13, 2011.
She was born July 5, 1919, the youngest child of Charles and Margaret Fuhs, Dewey, Okla.
She moved to Garnett when she was 6 and continued most of her life in Anderson County. She was educated in five rural schools, (Round Oak, Rockford, Bush City, Maple Grove and Buffalo). She did not complete high school because school buses did not provide complete transportation in those days. She also was needed around the home to assist with her semi-invalid mother.
She was baptized as a baby in St. Johns Catholic Church, Bartlesville, Okla., and later joined Selma Methodist Church. She married Robert Croan, to whom seven children were born; daughters, Karol, Wanda, Dorothy, Joy and Sally; and sons, Charles W. and Robert Lewis Croan. They later divorced.
She married William E. Cooper of Kincaid in 1962 and they lived on a farm near Selma. In 1963 they and daughter Joy became members of Bush City Baptist Church. She and daughter Kathryn took nurse aide courses, but she preferred farmwork while her husband worked on high construction through the year.
She was an avid writer and had several pieces of work published in newspapers and magazines. She later became a member of The United Amateur Press Association, The International Clover Poetry Association, The Polaroid Photography Club and an honorary member of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation. She also held lifetime membership in the Kansas Authors Club. She was an author of 26 books and won 27 awards.
The State of California voted her in the Top Ten Authors for writing the most books, and the Kansas School for the Deaf voted her among the Top Ten Deaf Authors of the United States. She sold books to many foreign countries and to libraries across the country, as well as high schools and colleges for text and reference books, besides to libraries. Two of her books were chosen for the Reagan Presidential Library.
She is survived by five daughters, Karol Gragg, Phoenix, Ariz., Wanda Young and her husband, Jesse, Olla, La., Dorothy Glasgow and her husband, Larry, Topeka, Joy Mietchen, Merriam, and Sally Underwood, Boliver; two “substitute” sons, Dr. David Henderson and Dr. George Boutros; 13 grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by sons, Robert Lewis and Charles; five brothers, Harry, Carl, Charles Jr., Wayne and Glen; seven sisters, Nellie Freeman, Ina Faulk, Marjorie Shool, Ann Hendricks, Helen Field, Wilma Hamilton and Ella Knab; and five grandchildren.
Services will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Feuerborn Family Funeral Service Chapel, Garnett. The family will greet friends from at 1 o’clock prior to the service. Memorial contributions are suggested to Hospice Care of Kansas and may be sent in care of the funeral home. Condolences to the family may be left at feuerbornfuneral.com.
Kathryn Cooper
