The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1915-01-04
2 MEMORY
OF Marsara &c Hawkins Cooper, OF
Hattiesburg.
! MEMoRv


and we view in retrospect the many
changes which the year has brought
our thoughts turn to those who have
completed their life-work and have
begun life on fuller, broader plane
The death list of the year is unus-
uaily large and the bells which toll
out the old year sound death-knell
to many hopes. So 1t seems when
we record the death of Margaret Lee
Hawkins Cooper, which occurred in
Hattiesburg, Miss, on July s, that
many hearts are broken and many
hopes are dead"
| Margaret Lee was the only daugh-
ter Of George L. and Ellen Lee Haw-
kins, and she had lived in Hatties-
burg, where she was known and loved
by all, since infancy. Reared in a
home Of luxury and refinement, given
every advantage in education and
travel, she became social favorite
wherever she went. Girls who were
her schoolmates at Whitworth, Bel
mont and at Washington remember
her for her loving disposition and her
perfect naturalness. She was so thor
oughly herself; SO entirely unspoiled
by wealth or superior advantages.
1t was in the home-life, however,
that her loving nature was best
known. The Hawkins home has al
ways been an ideal one, and the ma
ture of this sweet young daughter,
/ developed in this atmosphere of love
and confidence until she became the
sunlight of the home. She was the
loving confidant of her younger
brothers and their ideal of woman
hood. How tenderly she loved her
father who shielded her from every
care. Between the mother and the
daughter, an almost sacred love ex-
listed and each made the others life
seem perfect. This happy home life
was not interrupted, but given a
broader sphere when in June, 1910,
she married Ellis B. Cooper, and be.
gan life in a nearby home.
Then followed four happy years
years too sacred to even touch upon
She, who had been such a loving
daughter, sister, wife, found her
highest Joy when God gave her son,
whom she called George in honor of
her father.
She was essentially a home-maker
but yet found time for church and
civic work. During the past two years
she served as President of the Maui
titus Club. How little dreamed we
that even then she was building more
stately mansions" and was soon TO
leave the outgrown shell by life's I'M
resting sea-"
A long and painful illness left her
courage undaunted and her soul ready
for the great change. Those who Wis
tied her in these last days were filled
with wonder at her entire forgetful-
ness of self. Her only thought was
for her loved ones, until that last mo-
ment, like a tired child, she closed her
eyes in sleep. Who would disturb SO
sweet rest, or call back the escaped
spirit to its cage? She who had lived
so full life for others cannot die.
And SO when we gathered about her
on that sad day, as she lay for the
last time in that home she loved 80
well, we felt that the broken box of
incense" had already begun to shed
its fragrance and that we we're better
because. we had known and loved her.
The heart-broken family will miss her
presence, but the influence of her life
is but begun. and some day boy will
thank God for the gift of such
mother.
And SO we buried her beneath
mound of flowers, each blossom a re-
membrance of some, thoughtful deed
of hers. and the skies wept with us
as we laid her away; but when the
last sad rites were DER, the sun shone
forth brightly as If 1t we're a promise
that we should meet again the soul
Of her whose life was an inspiration;
whose death, benediction.
And so the bells which ring this
year shall have tender minor strain,
and with the last peal. there shall be
sung requiem to this fair young
soul:
Requiem aeternam dona Ell. Do
mine" L. M. S.