DR. JAMES FRANKLIN COOPER, age 77, formerly of St. Louis, died Thursday, January 19, 2012, at his residence in Charleston.

He was born January 24, 1934 in Charleston to the late Rev. Allen Britten Cooper and May Lawrence Cooper. He lived in Mississippi County and was educated in the Charleston public schools, graduating from Charleston High School in l952. At that time he entered Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he completed his undergraduate degree. Later he completed his M. D. degree from Baylor University College of Medicine where he studied under Dr. Michael DeBakey and Dr. Stanley Crawford.

Dr. Cooper established his career in St. Louis practicing out of City Hospital. In 1967, Dr. Cooper, a captain in the U. S. Army, served as Vietnam surgeon at the hospital at Bien Hoa for a year where his team performed 577 surgical procedures one month. He was then transferred as medical officer to General William Westmoreland. At the end of his Vietnam experience he returned to St. Louis and continued his work as Metropolitan Police Surgeon for a number of years. For twenty-five years he served on the staff of DePaul Hospital where he later was named as Chief of Surgery. The American College of Surgeons later recognized the work he had done by adding his name to the permanent Vietnam Vascular Registry of Surgery (1965-1979). For many years Dr. Cooper was Medical Director for St. Louis Labor Health Institute at Teamster Local # 688.

At his retirement he moved back to Charleston and served as a medical professional on Indian reservations in Oklahoma, Arizona and Washington on temporary basis where a medical doctor was needed. Dr. Cooper had many interests including music and the collection of Russian icons and antiques.

Dr. Cooper is survived by five sisters, Julia Cooper Warren and Betty Cooper Hearnes both of Charleston, Dr. Jennie Cooper and Jane Cooper Stacy both of Cape Girardeau, and Dr. Rose Marie Cooper Jordan of Greer, SC; also many nieces and nephews.

One brother, Allen A. Cooper, a sister, Velna Cooper Brown, two brothers in law, Governor Warren E. Hearnes and Audley A. Brown; a niece, Lynn Cooper Hearnes, and two nephews, Harry Warren III and Gregory Lee Crawford also preceded him in death.

Visitation will be held at the First Baptist Church in Charleston on Sunday, January 22, 2012, from 1:00 p.m. until the funeral hour at 2:00 p.m. Officiating will be Rev. Gerald Collier of Ironton, Missouri. Organist is Mary Miller of Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Pallbearers will be his nieces and nephews.

Missouri Military Honor Guard will conduct Graveside rites at the IOOF Cemetery. Interment will follow under the direction of McMikle Funeral Home.

Memorial contributions may be given to charity of choice.