Elsie Stanley Ivers Cooper, 88

Elsie Stanley Ivers Cooper was born on Sept. 14, 1923, in Nampa, Idaho, to John William Stanley and Winnifred Edith Tauge Stanley.

She “went home to heaven to trade in her wheelchair for dancing shoes and wings” on Jan. 3, 2012.

Elsie spent her early years in the Columbia Falls area where her dad was a sheriff. The family then moved to a farm in Pablo. There she met the love of her life at baseball game, where with a wink and a tip of his hat, Harold stole her heart.

Harold and Elsie lived many years in the Fortine area. They traveled many times to Alaska. In 1971, Harold died of cancer and a few years later she married Joe Cooper.

Elsie was our hero. She nursed both husbands with cancer at home, until they passed away. She lost a son and a daughter, and many other family members, but her faith was unwavering and she stayed strong through it all.

Four brothers and four sisters, her mother and father, two husbands, a son, a daughter, a grandson, and many others “have gone to heaven before her.”

She is survived by a daughter, Rose Berger; a son, Dean Darwin; a daughter-in-law, Marie Ivers; one brother, Jim; one sister, Betty; six grandchildren; and many great-grandchildren.

Elsie could not see due to macular degeneration and while she was “getting ready to be an angel,” she could not talk but she still mouthed the words to her favorite hymns that were played, and scowled when Rose would cry by her bedside. We know that she would not want us to mourn or weep, but to celebrate a life well lived, a glorious home in heaven.

“And Mom, I hope you dance!”

Funeral services will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 9, at the Faith Alliance Church in Kalispell, with a reception to follow.