Funeral services were conducted in the Marlette First Presbyterian Church, Wed at 2pm by the Masonic Lodge No 343 and Rev. A. Allison Anstutz assisted by Rev. AG Howat for James Cooper, 27, of Flynn, who died Sun in Brown City hospital. Burial was in the Marlette cemetery. Mr. Coopers death was the result of a gunshot wounds he received when he shot himself in the forehead with a .22 caliber rifle at 4pm Sat in a fit of despondency. A suicide note was found in the kitchen, written to his wife.
The young husband is survived by his widow, Lunetta Mahaffy Cooper; a three year old son, Ronald; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Cooper of Burnside Township; 4 sisters, Mrs. Clarence Ingalsbee of Saginaw, Mrs. Robert Attridge of Flynn Township, Normajean and Ruthaleen Cooper and one brother, Billy Lee Cooper at home, and one nephew of Saginaw.
The James Coopers lived on a farm 7 ½ miles southeast of Marlette and according to the store told for the officers who investigated that in a struggle with her husband in the afternoon, Mrs. Cooper managed to get the .22 caliber rifle away from him after two shots had been fired into the ceiling of the kitchen. She three the rifle into the snow from the front porch of their home and then left to summon the aid of her parents, living a half mile away. She heard a shot while on the road but continued to her parents home. When she returned with help, her husband was lying on the rear porch with a bullet wound in the center of his forehead and the rifle at his side. He was treated by Dr. WA Gift of Marlette and taken to the Nellie Scott Rogers Memorial Hospital in Brown City, where he died Sun morning. Under sheriff Otto Zorn and State Trooper Leslie Allen, of the Sandusky Police Post, investigated.
The James Coopers were married Jul 16, 1938. One child born last year died at birth. James was born at the farm home south of Marlette on Jan 24, 1919. He was a member of the Marlette Masonic Lodge and attended the First Presbyterian Church.
