Carolyn (Proctor) Cooper

Mrs. Carolyn Proctor Cooper, age 99, of Lyons, died Wednesday, April 19, 2023, at Ogeechee Area Hospice in Statesboro.  She was a native of Bulloch County, growing up in Nevils and Brooklet, and was a 1939 graduate of Nevils High School.  She attended Georgia Teachers College in Statesboro and Draughon’s Business College in Valdosta.  In 1944, she married her husband and made Lyons their home in 1959.  That same year, they founded Cooper Funeral Home in Lyons, which they operated for more than thirty years and where she was a licensed funeral director.  They purchased the Little Flower Shop in 1968 and operated it for many years.  She was an active member of the First United Methodist Church of Lyons and the John Durst Sunday School Class where she served on the Card Ministry Team.  She was a member of the New Life Circle, the inspiration behind their Flower Ministry and was honored by her church in 2011, as the recipient of the Heritage Award.  Through the years, she quietly visited the sick, took food to them, watered their flowers, shopped for groceries, took them to doctor’s appointments, and helped in the food pantry.  She served at Partin Park when the community health fair and senior citizen luncheons were hosted there.  Earlier in her life, while living in Vidalia, she was a den mother for the Boy Scouts, and after moving to Lyons, she started the first Girl Scout Troop in Lyons.  Her motto was to try to do something good for someone each day.  She was an active member of the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary.  In 2016, she was selected as Lyons Citizen of the Year, which she humbly accepted.  She is preceded in death by her husband, Jimmie Cooper; an infant daughter, June Elizabeth Cooper; parents, Nathaniel Astor Proctor and Edna Mae Davis Proctor; two siblings, Allen Debrell Proctor and Eldwyn Nathaniel Proctor; and a son-in-law, Buster Akins.

Her family includes two children, Jimmy Cooper and wife Debbie of Brooklet, and Ellen Cooper Akins of Lyons; seven grandchildren, Clint Cooper, Amy Akins Moore and husband Jamie, Ben Akins and wife Wendy, Christy Cooper Scoggins and husband Jeff, David Akins and wife Miranda, Jared Cooper and wife Amanda, and Dawn Griffin and husband Travis; thirteen great-grandchildren, Anna, Rhett, Christopher, Savannah, Austin, Ansley, Ethan, Carson, Bowen, Sara Beth, Addison, Cohen, and Kate; and several nieces and nephews.

The funeral service will be Friday, April 21st, at 12:00 noon at the chapel of Ronald V. Hall Funeral Home with Reverend Mitch Bellflower and Pastor Efton Green officiating.  Burial will follow at Lyons City Cemetery with Pastor Randall Smith.

The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Friday morning from 10:00 until just prior to the service.  

Flowers are accepted, or memorial contributions may be made to the Cruise-In for A Cause Motorcycle Association, a local nonprofit 501C3 organization partnering with individuals and businesses to help local families with physical needs due to sickness and disease, c/o Phillip Edge, 901 Mt. Vernon Road, Vidalia, GA 30474.  PayPal cruiseinforacausevidalia@gmail.com, CashApp $CIFACMA

Ronald V. Hall Funeral Home of Vidalia was in charge of arrangements.                         

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