Edna "Edie" Muriel Cooper

Edna Muriel (Crouch) Cooper, 96, went home to be with her Heavenly Father on Monday, February 4, 2019, 1:00 p.m. at Macon Health Care Center, Macon, Missouri. Memorial services will be held at the Unionville Methodist Church in Unionville, Missouri, on Saturday, February 9, 2019, at 11:00 a.m.  Interment will take place at the Unionville Cemetery.

Edna was born on March 11, 1922, in Mystic, Connecticut, to Anna and Herbert Crouch. Edna graduated from Norwich Free Academy in Norwich, Connecticut. Edna attended Simpson Bible Institute (piano classes) in Seattle, Washington. Edna was a joyful child always smiling, singing and playing the piano. She accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Savior at the age of 13. Edna had two sisters and four brothers. The Crouch household was full of laughter, singing and love. Anna taught all the children to play the piano and singing harmony was a loved activity. Often the children sang at church – whether a quartet, duet, or trio. At the age of 18, Edna moved to New London, Connecticut, living with girlfriends and working at the Submarine Base in New London.

Edna met Joe Cooper (a U.S. Navy Sailor) at Huntington Street Baptist Church in New London, Connecticut. Joe had survived the Pearl Harbor bombing and was in training at the New London Submarine Base. The experience of Joe and Edna was one of many young couples during World War II. Their focus was on helping their country win the war. Edna was a war bride marrying Joe on June 11, 1943 in the Huntington Street Baptist Church in New London, Connecticut. Joe shipped out in July of 1943 to the South Pacific aboard the Perch Submarine. While Joe was serving in the South Pacific, Edna continued working at the Submarine Base and living with other war brides in New London. Edna gave birth to the couple’s first daughter, Donna, on September 11, 1944. Joe returned home to Florida in January, 1946, greeting Edna (and their baby daughter, Donna --age 17 months—for the first time). The young couple took the train across the country visiting Joe’s family in Missouri on their way to Mare Island Naval Base in Vallejo, California. A second daughter, Darlene, was born in Vallejo, California on October 22, 1946. Upon Joe’s completion of six years of service in the Navy – Jan., 1947, Joe and Edna embarked on their educational journey at Simpson Bible Institute in Seattle, Washington. They lived in an airstream trailer with their tiny family. Other GI’s and their families joined the student housing at Simpson. While Joe was completing his degree at seminary Edna took courses at Simpson in piano. Joe and Edna served their Lord and Savior in small town churches in Washington, Oregon and California with the Christian Missionary Alliance denomination. While Joe preached, Edna played the piano and sang in choirs at their small churches in Seattle, WA; Wamic, Silverton and Coos Bay, OR. Edna also sang with the Silverton Mother Singers in Oregon. Summer Camp at CMA’s Canby Family Camp was an annual vacation where Joe served with the Camp’s administration. Donna was baptized at the age of 11 in the Molalla River while at Canby Camp. During these happy days, a third daughter, Delores Joan “Joanie”, was welcomed into the family on July 23, 1954, in Silverton, Oregon. Also special memories were of hiking the irrigation trail on Mt. Hood and at Silver Falls National Park picnics and hikes under the Silver Falls. The family moved to California living in Palmdale, Quartz Hill, Lancaster and Cupertino– both Edna and Joe working at Lockheed and at small churches.

In 1959, Joe joined the Methodist denomination and moved the family to his home state, Missouri. Joe and Edna served the Unionville Methodist Church, Unionville, Missouri, from 1959 to 1966. Both Donna and Darlene met their future husbands in Unionville.  Then Joe and Edna served the Corder Methodist Church (66-67) in Corder, Missouri, where Joe continued his education receiving his Masters in Divinity at St. Paul’s Seminary in Kansas City. In 1967 Joe served the Blue Ridge Boulevard Methodist Church. Joanie met her future husband while the family lived in Raytown, Missouri. Edna had been working at the Kansas City Public Library and working there 22 years. Joe and Edna pastored at the Oakley United Methodist Church in Kansas City over the next several years until Joe died in February 1978. Edna retired in 1989 from the Kansas City Public Library moving to Columbia, Missouri, to be near her daughter Donna and husband Ron Snyder. “Edie” joined the Missouri United Methodist Church where she remained a member until her death. Edie lived in apartments until she required assisted living when she went to Bluff Creek Assisted Living in Columbia, then she went to Macon Health Care Center in Macon, MO, living near her daughter, Donna, in March of 2018.

Edna “Edie” is survived by: one Brother: Harold Crouch of Brooklyn, CT; and two daughters: Donna Snyder (Ron) of Macon, MO, and Joanie (Jim) Barber, Blue Springs, MO.  Her grandchildren are Liz Snyder, Cooper (Billie) Snyder, Jack (Terri) Jobe, Jason (Kristina) Herrick, Joseph Herrick, Jenny Irwin, and Jamie (Jeremy) Quick.  Edna’s great grandchildren are Jaylon Snyder, Grace Snyder, Josey Snyder, Jack Jobe III, Nichols George Jobe, Jackson Irwin, Jonah Irwin, Jordan Irwin, Joseph Irwin, Jude Quick, and Jillian Quick.

Edna is preceded in death by her parents Herbert and Anna Crouch; her brothers, Edwin, Theodore, Raymond; her sisters, Lillian, Evelyn; her daughter, Darlene Jo; her Son-in-law, Bob Herrick, her grandson-in-law, Jason Irwin; and her husband, The Rev. Joseph R. Cooper.