- Date Of Birth: March 16, 1920
- Date Of Death: July 31, 2016
- State: Alabama
Orval Ralph Cooper lived March 16, 1920 – July 31, 2016, passing at 96 years and 3 months. He was born in Maysville, OK, to Robert Edgar and Ila Davidson Cooper. Orval’s accomplishments are highlighted by being a cow hand, Rush Springs, OK; his service during WWII in the United States Coast Guard/U.S. Navy and later in the Army Reserves for a total of 19 years. Following the war, he married Bonnie Belle Corbin of Cushing, OK; Dad worked at Sears and Roebuck as a rail yard laborer, Hyattsville, MD; he had time to earn a bachelor’s degree from Strayer College (now University); he served in a variety of civil service positions with the U.S. government for over 30 years, retiring from NASA’s Saturn Program as a Budget Officer, Huntsville, AL 1975; he was a charter member of the Weatherly Heights Baptist Church, he owned and operated Cooper’s Ranch off Dug Hill Road, Brownsboro, AL; he married Nancy Thornton Womack of Madison, AL in 1975; owned and operated one of Alabama’s first eco-friendly septic tank companies; he owned and operated a game bird hunting reserve in southern Tennessee; he developed and operated a fertilizer plant in Madison, AL serving north Alabama and southern Tennessee farmers; and in his spare time, held the City of Madison’s Safety Commissioner Seat #2 for a good number of years, beginning in 1977.
Orval Cooper is preceded in death by wives Bonnie Belle Corbin Cooper and Nancy Thornton Womack Cooper; his sisters Velda Lou Cooper Mayhugh and Irma Jean Cooper Morrow his brothers Robert Lavern Cooper, Louis Harold Cooper, Donald Ray Cooper and step son Jackson Cooper Womack. He is survived by sisters-in-law Clara Cooper and Nora Cooper; his sons, Robert E. of Tampa, FL, William R. of Huntsville, AL, and daughter Bonita Cooper Troop MacDonald of Huntsville, his step-daughters Pat Edwards of Madison, AL and Kathy Womack Williams Lee of Cullman, AL and his numerous grand, great grandchildren and a few great-great grandchildren.
Orval loved his Madison United Methodist Church and surrounding neighbors in the city of Madison; he loved to travel anywhere in the US; he loved Labrador retrievers, taking two to the National Retriever Championship in Madison Square Garden as an amateur trainer; he loved quarter horses and in particular cutting horses even riding Chubby, his cutting horse, to a third place win at the Non-Pro and Open Cutting Horse Event, National Cutting Horse Association Championship, Oklahoma State Fair Park, Oklahoma City, OK. He never passed on an opportunity to see a rodeo and he with Nancy attended the Futurity twice in Fort Worth, TX.
He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
