Donna L. Cooper

Donna Lee Cooper left this world on October 13, 2016. Services will be held in the spring of 2017 to inter her ashes in a graveside service at Glendale Cemetery. Donna was born August 4, 1932 in Lacona, Iowa, the oldest daughter of Vivian Blanche (Burg) and P.G. “Doc” Hess. The family later moved to a farm in rural Story County, where Donna attended and graduated from Nevada High School. In a time when women rarely worked outside the home, Donna was a “take charge” business woman and entrepreneur. She ran an employment agency for a number of years, leaving to work for Allen Whitfield, founding member of the Whitfield and Eddy Law firm. For the next twenty-plus years, Donna continued to play an important role at the firm. One of the attorneys she worked for, Wendy Carlson Waugaman (who later became President and Chief Executive Officer at American Equity Insurance) said of her, “Had she been born in another era, Donna would have been the attorney!” Donna loved history and family and combined the two interests to pursue a second career as a professional genealogist. She worked with clients all around the world to trace their linages and had her own lines back to the 1600s— confirming five lines to be established in the United States by that time! In addition to her love of history, Donna was a committed environmentalist. She was a bird watcher, collector of native wildflowers and former member of the Lepidopterist Society. She contributed to the benefit of elephant sanctuaries, and passionately followed the lives of the bald eagles in The Raptor Resource Project. But above all, Donna was dedicated to her family. Her daughter, Sally Cooper (Douglas) Smith, and granddaughter, Emily Smith, were her world. She was an integral part of their lives and her passing is a great loss. Donna is survived by her two sisters, Patricia (Steven) Baker, and Velda (James) Weeks, and two brothers, Gail (Martha) Hess, and Richard (Marilyn) Hess, along with numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, former husband, Dr. Richard R. Cooper and sister, Shirley Lovejoy. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be directed to The Raptor Resource Project. Condolences may be sent c/o the Caldwell Parrish Funeral Home.