Gracie DeCarlo Cooper

Gracie DeCarlo Cooper
12200 County Road 105
Brownwood, TX 76801
325-784-5197
wwcooper@bwoodtx.com 

What happened after graduation?
After business school I worked for Metropolitian Furniture on Jensen Drive for about 3 months and quit when Billy and I married because he worked nights at Cameron Iron Works.  Was a homemaker and stay at home mom for about 20 years. Worked several years at Electrotex, The Leader Newspaper and finally Marek Brothers Company for 20 years.  Billy worked for Cameron, Cooper, Wyman Gordan for 40 years, retiring in 2000 and I in 2002.

Family..
Billy Cooper and I married in 1959 (if any one had told me I was going to marry Bily I would have said they were crazy!  Look almost 49 years later and here we are still together (well not always, the joke is that we travel in different vehicles...less arguments.)  Hard to beleive that next year will be our 50th.  It hasn't always been easy for either one of us, a lot of work. 

We have three daughters (Pam, Diane and Laurie), 2 grandchildren (Angela and Brandon), 2 son-in-laws (Philip and Brad), 5 step-grandchildren and 9 step-great grandchildren.  Quite a family for me since I was an only child and only grandchild.  Pam and Laurie live in Houston and Diane lives in Lytle (south of San Antonio).  Oh I forgot 7 granddogs and 3 great granddogs.

I never thought I would…
Move so far from Houston.  Billy and I love it here, we have so many friends and activities that just would not have happened in Houston.  We live 20 miles from town, our nearest neighbors are 4 donkeys and a horse and across the road some cattle. 

Rewarding events since 1958
Our marriage, the birth of our 3 daughters, the birth of our 2 grandchildren, our jobs, our retirement and moving to Grosvenor/Brownwood.  

What I would do differently
Probably not a thing.  I only wished we could have moved here when our children were small but that would not have been possible because of the work situation.  Now they love to come visit.  They had a good life living in Oak Forest in fact Pam and Laurie still live there. 

Special interests or hobbies
Billy and I are active members of Bangs First United Methodist Church (he is on several committees) and I help with the Lords Acre.  He is president of The Brownwood Coin Club and a Gideon.  All keep him busy and with many friends.  I am a member of McDaniel TEEA Club.  I support Billy in all he does and am so glad to be able to stay at home, something I missed while working.  I joked when we moved here that I have a new hobby, hanging clothes on a clothes line, nothing like sheets dried outside in the sunshine.  We are also members of Grosvenor Community Club that has a covered dish dinner once a month.  I enjoy riding with him to check deer feeders and just riding out to the pasture.                     

Favorite vacation spot
Billy worked in Grafton, Mass. for 6 months and I moved there with him for 3 months.  That became our favorite spot, I fell in love with lighthouses, whale watching.  My very favorite was walking the Marginal Way in the fog to the "talking rocks".  There again we made some wonderful friends.  Of course before that it was LaJolla, Calif. (I was there with 2 of my daughters on 9-11 while Billy was at home with the 2 grandchildren.  Before that it was Evergreen, Colo. Before that it was Alpine, Texas.  Before that it was Big Bend Area.  In other words it was where ever I happened to have been.

Additional thoughts and comments
Billy and I had planned to travel when we retired.  Instead we moved here and are so happy that we only travel to Abilene, Houston, Lytle and lately to Fort Worth.  Sometime this year I want to go to Frontier Texas in Abilene, The Texas Ranger Museum in Waco, and Fort Concho in San Angelo.  I love traveling the back roads (no interstates for me, except between San Antonio and Houston).  P. S. I have one very brown apple pie (I was so deep in thought writing this that I forgot I had a fresh apple pie in the oven.)  Oh well, Billy is use to that and he will eat it and say it is delicious.  He knows he better or I won't make another one!  Got him trained reaaaaly good!