www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/1048833,2_1_AU10_COOPER_S1.article
Respected music teacher, 44, loses fight with cancer
July 10, 2008
By Linda Girardi Special to The Beacon News
AURORA -- The Granger Middle School community is mourning the loss of a much-loved music teacher.
Annette Lyn Cooper, 44, of Aurora, died Tuesday after battling ovarian cancer.
Cooper's passion for music came through in her 13 years as band director at Granger, teaching those first arrivals in band and experienced players.
"Annette had the opportunity of teaching sixth-graders beginning in band and eighth-graders in their final year of band. She was one of the most dedicated music teachers that I have ever worked with -- her entire life was the Granger music program," Principal Mary Kelly said Wednesday.
Kelly said Cooper had a gift for instilling a love of music and confidence within her students.
"Annette truly believed every student was capable of being a fine musician," Kelly said.
It was typical for Cooper to arrive at school at 6:45 a.m. to prepare for an early band practice and hold after-school rehearsals and attend to every detail on concert nights.
For the last year and a half that Cooper had been ill, music teachers from throughout the Indian Prairie School District assisted their colleague by doing daily tasks that increasingly became difficult for Cooper to do on her own.
"Our band director from Hill Middle School stayed with Annette in her last few weeks of life," Kelly said, adding others helped with her general household bookkeeping and chores.
Her colleagues earlier in the year were awarded an Indian Prairie Educational Foundation grant and commissioned a musician to compose a piece of music in Cooper's honor. The musical piece will be performed for the first time in October at a Waubonsie Valley High School band concert by eighth-graders from Granger, Hill and Still middle schools, as well as members of the high school band.
Cooper's specialty was the clarinet, and she performed in the Fox Valley Concert Band.
At a memorial service to celebrate Cooper's life and passion for music, band teachers in the district will perform a clarinet duo. The service will be at 4 p.m. Saturday at Moss Family Funeral Home in Batavia. Visitation will be from 1 p.m. until the time of the service.
Granger Middle School mom Sherry Tatar said her 13-year old son, Jonathan, had Cooper for sixth-grade band. Tatar, a community columnist for The Beacon News, said that although the youngster is now in chorus and performing in musicals, he remembers Cooper as always happy and smiling and loving what she was doing.
"Kids really get attached to their teachers. This is a great loss to the Granger Middle School community," Tatar said.