Then, there was Merry... The Cooper Sisters in Chicago

Merry was a beautiful woman. She had that unique arrangement of facial features that draws people's eyes to her. In the above ad from the Chicago Tribune, she is the gal on the left, as is stated in the caption on the bottom right. " 'Aboard The Prelude' on a perfect sailing day, Merry Cooper (plaid shorts) and Jean Friskey lean with the breeze on a race from Wilmette's Sheridan Shore Club to Balmont Harbor.' " This photo was from September 14, 1947, so was taken after our parents moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I don't remember that Merry was back in Chicago at that time, but apparently she was! Merry truly enjoyed the big city!

Merry at about the age of 17. Already she was a beauty...

 Here is a 'poorly colored' snapshot of Merry outside on Dayton Street. 

  Merry, all dressed up, and standing on the steps of the house on Dayton Street.

Another shot of Merry on the steps at Dayton Street, this time dressed more casually.

And, yet another photo of Merry, in front of the house on Dayton Street. Either she enjoyed posing for photos, or someone enjoyed using her as a model for their camera!

Merry was a beautiful girl...here is her graduation portrait. No wonder she had lots of fellows wanting to date her! When she was in high school, she dated a man that my mother did not approve of. This guy was smooth... He was into photography, and after he joined the Navy, he made a photo of himself in his uniform, smoking a pipe, with the above photo merged into the smoke swirling above his head. He gave Merry an 8x10 copy of that photograph, which I remember seeing many times in my younger years, but I do not know what happened to that picture. Perhaps Merry destroyed it herself, but it has disappeared. Too bad...it was a very evocative picture of her... 

Merry was simply one of those unusually photogenic people, and as a young woman, that fact was both to her benefit and to her disadvantage. She was tired of being poor, and wanted to live a 'big life.' That wish took her into a relationship that was going to be a trial for her, and for her family, especially her mother, Wilma.

Here is Merry with our little dog, Mitzi, in the back yard of the house on Dayton Street. Even when she was not posed for a photograph, she looked beautiful.

Merry was pretty adventuresome. One time, she and a friend dressed in boy's clothing, and went down to Chicago's wharf late at night. Even back in those days, that was a very risky adventure. All sorts of people hung out downtown in Chicago after dark! Keep in mind that Al Capone and his gang made Chicago their base during the 1930's. The wharf was no place for 'nice' girls to hang out after dark, especially without an adult. But, not only was Merry full of adventure, she often got away with her antics without harm...

As my mother told in her biography, one summer Merry and our cousin, Marilyn Barrett, worked together at a factory during the war. 

 

Our cousin Marilyn was also a beautiful young lady. I am sure she and Merry had some adventures when they worked together in Chicago, with all the servicemen around.

I have a lot of photos of Merry and her life because when she suffered a fatal stroke in 2012, I was her Power of Attorney, and eventually her executor for her estate. More stories about her life will appear in this blog, as time goes along. Sometime when she was in Chicago and was in her 20's, she met a good-looking man who had plenty of money to spend on her. Merry was always attracted to men who had money, perhaps because in a family of five girls, growing up during the Great Depression, she had experienced the difficulties that come with many mouths to feed and bodies to clothe, and often not quite enough money to make that easy... I don't know why she chose Freddy Burns, but she did. More about this story later on...