June Cooper's piano skills eased way from city to town

June Cooper was a city dweller who took to small-town life in Minnesota.

Cooper, who with her husband owned a resort on Cass Lake, and later became a U.S. Forest Service employee, died of a lung disease on Aug. 4 in Wyoming, Minn.

She was 88.

Cooper grew up in Minneapolis and graduated from South High School in 1938.

Soon after she married husband Tim in 1941, he enlisted in the Coast Guard, serving in New York during World War II.

She followed and took a job in a shipyard.

They liked the city so much, they almost remained there after the war, but family drew them to the Twin Cities.

So in 1962, they packed up and moved to Cass Lake, buying the Sah-Kah-Tay Beach Resort.

"It was life-changing," said her daughter, Rennae Glidden of Hugo.

At first, Cooper wasn't so sure about moving to a small town. After all, she had once been tempted to become a New Yorker.

But she and her family soon made friends, and her piano playing helped get the family involved in town life.

Tim became a leader in the American Legion, and she was a leader in the American Legion Auxiliary, playing for many events.

The first year they owned the resort, flooding knocked out several cabins. Making a living became difficult, and they sold the resort in 1966.

She worked a job or two for a bit, eventually becoming a secretary and receptionist with the U.S. Forest Service.

Once a child wrote to her, asking for anything with Smokey Bear's image on it.

She sent it along, and after a time, word must have gotten out about her kindness. Hundreds of children from around the world wrote her, asking for trinkets with the famous bear's image.

She complied with all requests, said her daughter.

Her husband died in 1984, but she remained in Cass Lake. In 2002, she moved to Forest Lake to be nearer to her daughter.

Soon after moving, she signed up as an auxiliary member of the American Legion in Hugo.

Between Cass Lake and Hugo, she served the veterans' group for 46 years.

In addition to Rennae, she is survived by her sons, Tim of Cass Lake and Dale of Becida, Minn.; brother, Robert Brose of rural Becker, Minn., nine grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.