FLOWERS IN THIS LIFE

September 1998 Table of Contents - Current Issue of The Abaco Journal - Abaco Bahamas' Home Page

FLOWERS IN THIS LIFE

It is often said we should give honour to the living, not flowers when they are dead. That was the thinking of Dundas Town Town Committee members when they decided to take down a road sign that was only a few months old and replace it with one proudly bearing the name of one of Dundas Town's most revered citizens, Godfrey Cooper.

At a ceremony on July 24th, Senior Island Administrator Everette Hart officially re-named Palm Tree Avenue so that it became Godfrey Cooper Avenue. The sign was unveiled by Town Committee member Jimmy Williams and there was a round of appreciative applause.

Mr Godfrey Cooper was on hand for the ceremony, sprightly at the age of 93. By happy fortune, the sign stands right outside the place where he now lives: Sybil's House, a home for senior citizens. As Mr Hart noted, so many ways we recognise and appreciate people are temporal. They soon pass away and are forgotten. "This road," he said, "will last as long as there is a Dundas Town. People many years into the future will know the name of Godfrey Cooper.

And when they enquire in years to come, what will they find out about this remarkable man? Mr Cooper was born on 27th September 1905 in Old Place, Abaco, where he served as a Subordinate Teacher in his youth. When the settlement was destroyed by a hurricane in 1935, Mr Cooper was one of those relocated to the present Dundas Town. He married the former Emily Russell (Mamma Till) in 1926 and they both became active in preaching the gospel throughout The Bahamas.

Under the banner of the Island Missionary Society, Godfrey Cooper and his wife served as missionaries on Mayaguana, Crooked Island, Acklins, Ragged Island and Long Island, often spending up to a year at a time in these places. Mr Cooper later became Pastor of Friendship Mission Tabernacle in Dundas Town. Mrs Cooper passed away in 1991 but Godfrey Cooper is still active as a Senior Elder at Friendship Mission Tabernacle.

In addition to the street re-naming, Mr Cooper was honoured at a banquet at Bayview Restaurant, Dundas Town, the following day and a special church service on Sunday 26th July. Flowers in this life indeed.

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