"Mr. Cooper was a giant in Louisiana agriculture. His leadership and ag industry stewardship were second to none!"
----Dr. Paul Coreil, Chancellor,
Louisiana State University -- Alexandria.
While I've not had the privilege of meeting Dr. Coreil, no one could have said it better.
Fortunately, I did have the privilege of knowing Will Cooper. He was my cousin-in-law, married to my second cousin Jeanette Brumfield Cooper. She and my mother, Margie Nell Brumfield Ellzey, were first cousins. Their fathers - Athan Brumfield and my grandfather Thomas Colter Brumfield - were brothers, and Washington Parish farmers on land their grandfather homesteaded.
I consider myself lucky to have known Mr. Will, as I called him. My father, his Commanding Officer in the National Guard, called him Willie, but to the best of my knowledge, no one else did. Daddy spoke most fondly of Mr. Will who served six years in the Guard and for at least part of that time drove my dad's jeep. Those were the early years.
By the time I got to know Mr. Will, he had climbed the ranks in the world of agriculture, becoming a giant in the field, exactly as Dr. Coreil said. Appointed Farm Service Agency Executive Director by President Richard Nixon in 1972, he served under thirteen secretaries of agriculture and eight United States presidents - a testament to bipartisanship if there ever was one. What expertise, and finesse, it must have taken, but Will Cooper had both in spades. And it all began in Washington Parish where he was born in 1936, the son of Ruth Mae Cooper Thomas and Clyde Cooper and brother of Clyde Everett Cooper, Marcell Cooper (Graves), and Vondell Cooper (Pierce). Mr. Will described to me how he measured cotton by dragging a chain through a Washington Parish field in the summer of tenth grade. After he graduated, in a class of thirteen, from Pine High School, he matriculated to Southeastern Louisiana University which became his alma mater.
After Will married my cousin Jeanette, the daughter of Athan and Freddie Brumfield, in 1959, the young couple moved to Covington and later Pineville where they raised their beloved sons Chet and Clay Cooper and enjoyed sixty-six years of marriage. And all the while, Mr. Will was making an indelible mark on farming, through his distinguished service with the United States Department of Agriculture. He enjoyed a fifty-six-year career, with the last forty-two of those as State Executive Director of the Farm Service Agency (formerly Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service).
Throughout, there were awards and honors galore. For example, he received the Louisiana Farm Bureau's Distinguished Service Award, and he was selected as Progressive Farmer's "Man of the Year." In addition to being a member of the Lions Club, he held a lifetime membership in the Louisiana Lions League for Crippled Children. And a scholarship was endowed in his honor at Louisiana State University - Alexandria.
Yet, humility was Will Cooper's long suit. And in addition, he was a man of great character. I have found the two often go hand in hand. Mr. Will's background in crops, mired with a brilliant mind and a strong work ethic, propelled him into a world of presidents along with secretaries and commissioners of agriculture.
While it was Mr. Will himself who told me about his early days in the cotton field, it was someone else, years ago, who shared with me an anecdote about Mr. Will and the sugar cane. I may not get the story just right, but my best recollection is a large amount of federal funding was to be released bright and early on a Monday morning, for the benefit of the sugar cane farmers in this country (Florida, Louisiana, and Texas are the main three producers, in that order).
Once Mr. Will caught wind of it, he quietly called his staff in to work over the weekend so they would be all set come Monday morning. Accordingly, as soon as the monies were released, they began pouring into Louisiana --- for our sugar farmers. Millions, as the story goes. Someone in our nation's capital sat up and took notice of the evaporation of funds, inquiring as to what was happening. The response: Oh, that's Will Cooper down in Louisiana, working for his farmers. With Mr. Will's unparalleled tenure in agriculture, I was not at all surprised. His commitment to the farmers, ranchers, and FSA employees in this state was self-evident.
The exact same can be said of Mr. Will's devotion to his family. Passing away on April 9, 2026, at the age of ninety, he was survived by his loving family - wife Jeanette Cooper; sons Chet Cooper and wife Robbyn and Clay Cooper and wife Jennifer; and grandchildren Grant Cooper, Erin Cooper, Lauren Cooper, Lane Cooper, and Emerson Cooper. His children and grandchildren were the apple of his eye. He was also survived by his sister Vondell C. Pierce, sister-in-law Delorus Jenkins, and brother-in-law Murdock Brumfield.
While I was a guest of the Coopers in their lovely Pineville home on a number of occasions, I didn't have the opportunity to attend church with them. They were devout members of Calvary Baptist Church where Mr. Will served, with dedication, as a deacon and on several key committees. And what he enjoyed most was worshiping alongside his family. A man of faith.
It was my good fortune to know Will Cooper. In later years, when I called his home looking for Cousin Jeanette, he often answered and entertained me to no end. It was a good day anytime we conversed. Mr. Will's voice made me feel safe and comfortable. I imagine it also did the farmer. Our family misses Mr. Will already.
