Longtime activist dies at 74

By Megan Rutherford
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Martha Cooper

Midtown lost a longtime advocate and volunteer last week.

Martha Cooper, 74, died Oct. 29 after complications from an emergency surgery.

Cooper was a major force behind school and neighborhood improvements for four decades.

Cooper was born March 24, 1928, in Burlington, Iowa. She moved to Tucson about 1948 and led efforts to get a new library and learning center built at East Fairmount Street and North Catalina Avenue in her neighborhood.

Cooper was concerned that no library existed nearby for the low-income families that dominate the area, said Brad Holland, president of the Midtown Neighborhood Association.

The library project received some money from county bond funds in 1997, and the county bought the land for the library in 2000. The neighborhood association also received a Community Development Block Grant for the project in 1997.

The project has stalled for nearly three years because the county and city disagree over which entity should pay for the opening collection.

City Councilman Fred Ronstadt said Monday that the project is still in limbo.

"We're very frustrated at the lack of cooperation that we've been getting out of the county," he said. "We get a lot of lip service from the county but no results."

Cooper's daughter Judi Williams said the delay saddened her mother, who loved to read to children at Wright Elementary School.

Cooper also pushed for the nature garden and playground at the elementary school. She served on the Parent Teacher Association when her children attended the school and, at the time of her death, sat on the school's site council. She recruited Catalina High School students to tutor the elementary students.

"Her greatest goal was to help the children," said Audrey Marr, a longtime neighborhood friend of Cooper's.

Cooper founded the Midtown Neighborhood Association in 1997 and was its president for several years.

A memorial service is planned for 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Mark's Presbyterian Church, 3809 E. Third St.