Susan Elaine Cooper Barron

Susan Elaine Cooper Barron was born on May 27, 1943, to her parents Leah and Everett Welborn. She had two older sisters, Jane and Shannon who both preceded her in death. Born in Oklahoma City, Susan was raised with a strong faith in the church and a deep commitment to making the world a better place. When she was only nine years old, she lost her mother to breast cancer, and this loss cast a shadow over her childhood and young adult life.

Susan attended University of Oklahoma in Norman where she was to meet her future husband, Ben Cooper. They met on a blind date after being set up by their mutual friend Diane Dillard. Ben and Susan later wed and have three daughters, Holly, Allison, and Emily whom they raised in Lawton, Oklahoma. Ben’s parents, DeRuse and Willou Cooper, took Susan in and made her their own daughter after her own parents passed.

Susan would become an active member of Lawton’s Junior League and eventually earn her Masters in Fine Arts. Susan was an incredible mother, grandmother, friend, and artist. She brought a similar creativity in each of these roles. For her art, Susan primarily worked with acrylics on canvas. Birds, water and her family were often featured in her work. For her girls, she would take them on “mystery rambles” that would involve getting into the car for a destination unknown. She would also throw elaborate Halloween Parties where the kids had their own entrance, winding through a maze of refrigerator boxes. Susan would go on to obtain a paralegal degree and start her own business. A believer in taking things to limit, she went on to represent herself in a lawsuit against a major corporation and won a seminal victory despite the fact that not a single lawyer agreed to take her case.

The center of Susan’s life would be her girls whom she described as her “greatest love.” In the late 1980s, she would move to Boulder, Colorado, to be near her oldest daughter, Holly where they shared the joy of nature. Susan would often visit her middle daughter, Allison, in Dallas where they would attend Highland Park Methodist Church, go on walks and talk about the importance of having God in your life. In 2007, Susan would move to the Pacific Northwest to live out her life with her youngest daughter, Emily. Preferring to live within blocks of each other, Susan’s works of faith and justice would inspire Emily to be a social justice lawyer.

After several weeks of fiercely fighting a series of major health issues, Susan told her girls that she was ready to go on her final mystery ramble. As the sun started to rise on the morning of July 28, 2026, Susan passed peacefully in her sleep. Her last words were, “I love you so.”

Susan is survived by Holly Likos and her children Benton, Jonas, and Lydia Likos; Allison Barnes and her husband David along with their sons Jackson and James Barnes; Emily Cooper and her wife Andrea Schiers along with their daughter Leah; Ben Cooper and all the Cooper cousins including Heather Scherer, Billy Nygard, Amy Jones, Eric Newendorp, and Candance Collins.