Viola (Young) Cooper

Glennville

Viola Cooper, age 92, passed away on Friday, August 16, 2019, surrounded by her loving family, under the care of Glennvue Nursing Home and Bethany Hospice.  She was born on May 27, 1927 to Edry Young and Jannie Bonner in Camden, Alabama.  At the age of 19, while working in Camden, she met and married Willie Nicholson on March 20, 1946.  The couple would leave Alabama and move to Miami, Florida to start a family.  Viola and Willie had 6 sons: Geoffrey, Michael, Oliver, Waymon, Hershel, and Andre.  After her divorce in 1958, she moved to Queens, New York and worked at St Joseph’s Hospital in Far Rockaway as a Nursing Assistant.  She later met George Cooper and they had a daughter, Tracy.  In 1971, she returned to Miami, Florida where she worked and also, became an active member of Mt Tabor Baptist Church and later, Bible Baptist Church.  Viola was active at her church and within the Parent Teachers Associations for Liberty City and North Beach elementary schools.  As a grandmother with many grandchildren and great grandchildren, she spent multiple years, across several decades of her life, living in either Sugarland, Texas with her son Oliver and family or in Lexington, Kentucky with her son Michael and family.  For the last decade of her life, she lived in Louisville, Kentucky with her son Michael and was an active member of St Stephens Baptist Church where she enjoyed playing bingo, shopping trips, and dining out with the senior community.  In December 2017, she moved to Glennville, GA with her son Michael and became a member of the Greater Zachariah Missionary Baptist Church where she enjoyed Sunday service and fellowship.  Throughout life Viola truly enjoyed spending time with family and her church community.  She will be remembered as a feisty diva, with energy and spirit to light up any room, and one who always spoke her truth.  She is preceded in death by her parents; husband, Willie Nicholson; partner, George Cooper; son, Geoffrey Nicholson; siblings, Vinnie Young, James Lee Young, Catherine Spencer, Isaiah Young, Ella Bell, Emma Mauling, and Margaret Hunter Hardy.

She is survived by her children, Michael Nicholson, Oliver (Litzi) Nicholson, Waymon (Theresa) Nicholson, Herschel (Patricia) Nicholson, Andre Nicholson, and Tracy Cooper; 22 grandchildren; 23 great grandchildren; 4 great-great grandchildren; sisters, Eliza Green and Emmaline Rankins; brother, Henry Lee Young and numerous nieces, nephews, and other relatives.

Memorial services will be held 11:00am Tuesday, August 20, 2019 from the Chapel of Glennville Funeral Home. Services will conclude at the chapel.

Glennville Funeral Home is serving the Cooper family.