Dorothy (Wagenfield) Cooper is our resident spotlight at Heritage Health Therapy and Senior Center

Dorothy has been a resident at Heritage Health for two years now. “This place is wonderful,” Dorothy said, “The help is great.” Dorothy spends much of her time in her room, but enjoys talking to her roomate and socializing with the people that come and visit her.

Being 90 years old, Dorothy can recall any part of her life without hesitation. With the looks of a 75 year old, Dorothy is living at Heritage Health now because she simply cannot take care of herself life she used to be able to.

She was born in Brighton, Illinois and spent much of her childhood in the area. Being a child in a family of four, she had a brother and two other sisters to keep her active. There was not much to do during that time like there is now, so Dorothy went to other peoples’ houses and played games with her friends for fun. Even those she could not remember the names, she remembered how much fun they used to have and how much time they passed doing the smallest of things and “that is the most important part.”

Blessed with two parents growing up, Dorothy was forced to go to school where she attended Fosterburg school up to eighth grade. After eighth grade, she attended Alton High School for just a single year and then she dropped out when she was about 16 years old. “After my freshman year, I decided I was going to leave school because I knew I was not going to go to college,” Dorothy explained.

Dorothy had to go to work as soon as she could because she did not have any money. She acted as a maid to the family she stayed with. “I did dishes, cooked, cleaned, took out the trash, all the regular stuff,” Dorothy stated. Having her license, but not having a car – Dorothy was forced to stay with the family. According to her, they liked it better that way anyhow. Her father had a car, but he worked too and asking him for the car was “out of the question.”

The parents did not make their kids do anything, Dorothy told us. Luckily for her, she made a job out of it and was able to “feed herself.” Good thing there were things for her to do because that last thing she wanted was to mess around with the kids. When questioned why she did not want to take care of the kids, she answered with she was not old enough to be worrying about that.

Staying in the Alton area, Dorothy did the housework for about 4 years until she met her future husband at a picnic. The picnics were an annual thing back then and everyone from all the other towns came, even the gentleman Roger Cooper of Bethalto. Roger and Dorothy hit it off at the picnic and although it was not love at first site, “it was love.” After the picnic, Dorothy explained that she was having car trouble and Roger helped her out with it and then came over later. They talked and “it started from there.”

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Roger and Dorothy then dated for about three years before they joined together in marriage on December 19, 1940. The couple got married in front of their family at Fosterburg Church and spent the rest of their lives “being farmers.” Roger was a farmer his entire life and Dorothy just married into it. “It was a chore to run,” Dorothy said as she laughed, “It was a good time.”

The couple farmed beans and corn on their 300 acre farm outside of Moro. Along with the crops, the couple had livestock too which included cows and horses. The livestock population dwindled at the Cooper farm when tractors became available because they resorted to using the up to date technology instead of the horses. It was much quicker and a lot better, Dorothy recalled.

Dorothy got the task of driving the tractor as she explained it still used lug wheels. The day started at 6 o’clock in the morning and after working for a few hours, the couple stopped and Dorothy would cook breakfast. After breakfast, “it was back to work.” Roger always let Dorothy drive the tractor because “he told me I was capable of driving a car, so it was not any different.” Dorothy actually worked side by side with Roger during the farming days.

She recalled one time after they just got married, a lug wheel fell off when she was driving. Roger was walking along side of it with his sacks of oats he was going to plant and when I came along side of him, “I hit those sack of oats and those old lugs just flew all over.” After being asked if she got in trouble, Dorothy answered that he never said anything to her. “I was like uh-oh as soon as I did it because I knew he would be mad, but he never said anything then. It was because we were newly weds, but it did not go so good after that.”

After farming for a couple years, the couple decided to have children. Roger and Dorothy had 6 children, five girls and one boy. All of the children still live around here, according to Dorothy. Most of them are teachers and they all went to school. Dorothy loved being a parent and having more help around the farm. When the kids were not going to school, they were always working on the farm. In the summertime they helped more, but they still fed the animals in the winter until they all got jobs.

Forty years later, Roger got sick and the Cooper family was forced to give up the farm and move up to Dorchester where they bought a small house with a small farm. Still living the farm life, they were doing the same thing they did in Moro but just on a smaller scale. Then, Roger passed away 24 years ago and Dorothy never farmed again.

Dorothy stayed in Dorchester until she got sick and moved to Heritage Health. Being a resident for only two years, she does not think she will ever get bored with it. “It is really nice and the help is great,” Dorothy said. They mix the food up and they never have the same thing that often.

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After being quarantined for nearly two weeks, Dorothy said Heritage Health is back to how it used to be! “I liked it because I did not get sick and I got to eat dinner in my room every day,” Dorothy explained, “But it is good now, the performers can come and play now.” She explained that performers come and she goes down to listen to them and sometimes even clap and sing along. They put their hard working hands to work for us, so I enjoy going down and listening.

“I just love it!”

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