Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Edward 'Jack' Cooper

Edward 'Jack' J. Cooper, 67, died Wednesday, May 19, 1999, at Baton Rouge General Hospital in Baton Rouge, La.

Dr. Cooper was born in Ouachita in 1932. He was a 1950 graduate of Prescott High School. Dr. Cooper was a retired emergency room physician of 32 years, having received his medical degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1961. He was a veteran of the Korean War serving in the U.S. Air Force and later in the U.S. Army Reserves. After practicing medicine in England, Ark., for six years, where he built the town's first hospital, Dr. Cooper then moved to Baton Rouge in 1967. He was the founding father of the Emergency Room Physicians Association that first served all the hospitals in the Baton Rouge area. Dr. Cooper also established emergency room physicians' groups at Ft. Frances Cabarani Hospital in Alexandria and Willis Knighten Hospital in Shreveport. He was the chief executive officer for the Louisiana Medical Review Organization and founder of the Baton Rouge Weight Control Unit. He was the past president of the Baton Rouge Gem and Mineral Society. He was preceded in death by his parents, Jack and Sarah Cooper of Prescott.

Survivors include his wife, Bonnie Cooper of Baton Rouge; two sons, Kevin and Kirk Cooper of Portland Ore.; one daughter, Meagan Cooper of Baton Rouge; and one granddaughter, Cori Cooper of Baton Rouge.

Funeral services were held May 22 at Baton Rouge.