Christine Baker Cooper always aimed to help.
Whether it was mentoring a colleague at the now-defunct Georgian Bank, where she was executive vice president until 2010, or serving as a member of the North Fulton Advisory Board for the American Cancer Society, her goal was to assist.
“I remember spending Christmas stuffing Christmas stockings for the local women’s shelters,” said her daughter Holly Cooper Ford of Alpharetta. “She saw that those women were trying their hardest to make it, and she had a lot of respect for any woman who had a strong work ethic.”
Mrs. Cooper, a near-decadelong resident of Woodstock and native of Chester, Pa., died Sunday of breast cancer. She was 61.
A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday at Dunwoody United Methodist Church. Roswell Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Cooper moved with her family to Atlanta in 1957, and at the age of 13, she met Jerry, the man who would become her best friend and, eventually, husband.
The couple would have celebrated their 44th anniversary this week.
They traveled frequently -- especially anywhere with water, where Mrs. Cooper always said she felt most at peace.
Summers were frequently spent on a houseboat at Lake Lanier, and her final trip last month was a family outing to Hilton Head, S.C.
“She was always planning the next trip. We got to Hilton Head and she said, ‘Where are we going next?’ " Mrs. Ford recalled.
An active force in the community, Mrs. Cooper was president of the board of directors at the YWCA of Greater Atlanta in 1991 and, a week after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, became involved with the American Cancer Society.
“Even on days when she wasn’t feeling well, she’d be on the phone and online talking to people, sharing her experiences with them and telling them what to expect from their doctors,” Mrs. Ford said. “[Cancer] is not something they give you a guidebook for, and she really reached out to people.”
Mrs. Cooper obtained a degree from Greenleaf Business College, and her 30-year banking career in Atlanta included serving as vice president at Bank of America and leading the Entrepreneur Private Banking Group at SunTrust.
“If you met her once, she would remember you, your kids’ names and your phone number,” Mrs. Ford said. “It was never about her.”
Other survivors include daughter Amy Cooper Mitchell of Canton; mother Dorothy Baker of Roswell; sisters Jennie Baker of Norcross, Barbara Bratten of Pittsburgh, and Wendy Emert of Marietta; and brothers Bill Baker of Lawrenceville and David Baker of Cumming.
The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made in Mrs. Cooper’s name to the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation (www.tnbcfoundation.org).
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