Memorials › Eva Clair “Tootsie” Cooper Vestal

Eva Clair “Tootsie” Cooper Vestal

30 Nov 1920 – 16 Dec 2015

Birth30 Nov 1920
Death16 Dec 2015
CemeteryCollege Station Cemetery
College Station , Brazos County , Texas , USA
Added byEd Cartwright III on 18 Feb 2021
FaGhttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/156143421

Bio

Eva Claire ("Tootsie") Cooper Vestal was born on November 30, 1920, in Eupora, Mississippi. The daughter of Clara Isabella and the Rev. O.C. Cooper, Claire was the third of six children beginning with older sisters, Miriam Cooper Smith and Louise Cooper Hardy, and younger brothers Dr. O.C. Cooper, Jr., Dr. James Cooper, and Bryan Cooper. She grew up in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Louisiana as a Baptist minister's daughter, who possessed a faith that was unshakeable throughout her life. She was a good student who had a natural aesthetic gift which manifested itself in her own paintings and sketches, and her love of art, over her 95-years. The most significant event in her life occurred after she transferred from Blue Mountain College in Mississippi, to Union University in Jackson, TN. That was when she met the love of her life, Howard Lee Vestal, an economics major and in 1941, soon to be a pilot in the Army Air Corps. The couple were wed on April 29, 1942, just before Howard was sent into combat in North Africa during the earliest years of the war. They loved each other until the day that each of them passed, in a marriage that lasted 71-years. In addition to being an artist, Claire was a military wife who raised three children, and was also an accomplished golfer who accompanied Howard on their many golfing trips around the U.S., and who traveled extensively around the world following his second retirement as an officer at Texas A&M University in College Station. She is survived by her children Howard Vestal, Jr. and wife Marsha, Molly Little, Laura McGregor and husband Jim, and her six grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren. Claire led an exemplary life as a wife, mother, and grandmother, whose foundation was her absolute faith in the lord. A funeral service will be held at 2:00 pm Saturday at Memorial Funeral Chapel in College Station, with visitation starting at 1:00, followed by interment in the College Station Cemetery next to Howard who died in 2013. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Howard and Claire Vestal Scholarship at Union University, Jackson, TN, 38305. Published The Eagle December 18, 2015

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