SPANISH FORK — Irma Cope has seen more than her share of conflict in her long lifetime.
She was a toddler when the Spanish American War broke out. She was a young wife, married only two years, when World War I started. She was middle-age when she lost a son in World War II and became eligible to be a Gold Star Mother.
Today, at age 105, she may be the oldest member of the national service organization for women whose sons or daughters were killed in action.
"I know of nobody (in the organization) older," said Jean Penfold, national service officer of American Gold Star Mothers Inc., based in Washington, D.C. The non-partisan organization has held a federal charter since
1929 and is an auxiliary of the American Legion.
Although Spanish Fork once had an active group of Gold Star Mothers, only two women remain.
But despite the conflicts that raged in the world during her lifetime, Irma Cope lived life in peace, active in her community, her church and in her family life, eldest son Jim Cope said. She was noted within her circle of friends and relatives for her hard work and kindness through sharing, family get-togethers and serving others through her church callings. She was known for her culinary arts, her sewing and other handicrafts.
"She put up hundreds of bottles of fruit each year," son Ray Cope said. "She kept a lot and gave a lot away."
She and her husband, J. Austin Cope, ran a general store in Tropic when their family was small. He was also a cattleman. They also had a tourist camp near Bryce Canyon National Park, where she liked to fish as a youngster. Irma Cope worked hard at both endeavors, Ray Cope said.
"It was during the Depression, and there wasn't any money," he said. So the family took in raw goods from hunters and farmers and paid in script, which was common among general stores at that time. Folks could then spend the script at the general store.
"We had our own welfare system," Ray Cope said.
When the children got older she moved them to Provo for school and took in boarders, while her husband continued to operate the general store in the winter, Ray Cope said.
"It was the way things were done back then," recalls her granddaughter, Anita Merrill of Spanish Fork.
"She was always attractive, even when she was up to her elbows in bread dough," Merrill said.
Grandson Todd Cope remembers looking forward to visits with "Grandma" Cope when he was a child. Her house was always peaceful and well kept, he said. "So much so that we couldn't go in and play." But still he enjoyed the quiet reverence of his grandmother's home, he said.
"I think it was because of the bowl of ice cream we all got at the end of the visit."
Her son Bernard died in 1944 during World War II, the only one of her five military sons who failed to return alive.
"She took that hard, real hard," Ray Cope said. "But she didn't say much."
"She was so sad," Merrill recalled, although Merrill was only a toddler at the time. "I was bewildered by it." Yet, Merrill said she didn't see her grandmother shed a tear.
Irma Cope also raised three daughters and a foster daughter. All except Bernard Cope and Lloyd Cope, who died eight years ago, are still living.
Irma Cope and J. Austin Cope Sr. married in 1916. He died in 1963. Their army of descendents now numbers 375. Add in the spouses, and the extended family has nearly 600 members, grandson Todd Cope said. She has 76 grandchildren, 179 great-grandchildren and 109 great-great-grandchildren.
In 1974 Irma Cope was struck by a car as she crossed Main Street.
"She was told she would probably never walk again," Todd Cope said.
He saw her come home from the hospital in a wheelchair, but never saw her in the wheelchair again. She used a walker for about a year, then no longer had use for it, he said.
"She lived on her own until she was 97," Todd Cope said. She is now confined to a rest home.
"I get to see her every day," great-great-grandaughter Erin Cope said. Erin Cope works at the Hales Rest Home where Irma Cope now resides.
Son Lloyd Cope served in the Air Force during the Korean conflict as a jet fighter pilot; Ray Cope served in the Army infantry and Evan Cope in the Marines during WWII.
Jim Cope was in the Army and later the Air Force. One of his assignments was to air drop supplies from a C-47 to troops in the Philippines. Among those troops was his brother, Ray Cope, and a brother-in-law.
"They called us biscuit bombers," he said.
Bernard Cope died on Saipan as he drew a bead on a Japanese sniper. A Japanese machine gunner fatally wounded him and another soldier on an island that was declared secure, Jim Cope said. The two and a third soldier were returning to their base when the fighting broke out. The third soldier got away, but 23 more GIs died before they were able to wipe out the Japanese machine gun nest.
"It was a bloody thing," Jim Cope said.
Later, he made contact with his brother's outfit, the 145th Field Artillery of the National Guard.
"I got his personal effects and shipped them home to Mother."
E-MAIL: rodger@desnews.com