Obituary of James R. Cooprider

James R. Cooprider of Zion passed away April 18th, 2019.

“Jim” is survived by his wife, Carole Cooprider; his daughter, Kim (Jim Hankin); his son Keith (Jan) Cooprider; granddaughter, Sarah Cooprider; and his great-granddaughter, Kensi Cooprider.  He was preceded in death by his son, Mark A. Cooprider; his mother, Mary Elizabeth Cooprider (nee Draudt); his sister, Carol Martin; and his aunt, Hattie Knapp.

Jim led an interesting and eventful life.  A quiet man for the most part, Jim’s mother died when he was eight-years old and subsequently was raised by his precious aunt, Hattie Knapp, in Winthrop Harbor, the town in which he was born on November 23, 1928, and spent most of his life.  Upon retirement in 1994, Jim and his wife settled in Hayward, Wisconsin in their beautiful log-cabin home on Nelson Lake.  Jim served in the U.S. Air Force as a medical corpsman from 1946 through 1949.  Before his marriage, he traveled extensively throughout the United States; he also was an Eagle Scout and a Scout Leader, who made several trips to Canada with aspiring, want-to-be Eagle Scouts.  He completed a semester of college on the G.I. Bill, but then decided to enter the building trades and worked with tile; some said that he was the best “tile-man” in Lake County from the 1960’s through the 1980’s; he worked very hard in his chosen craft.  He married Carole in 1959 and they remained married for sixty years.

Services will be private for the family.