Minnie Elizabeth Gillingham
b. 1878 Penrice
d. 1923 Riverton SA
Parents John Gillingham & Mary Williams
Married Robert Harvey Cooper in 1898
Child Maybel Joyce Cooper
Robert married Minnie ElizabethGillingham, born at Penrice to Rev. John Gillingham and his wife Mary (Williams). Minnie was the seventh child of the Rev. Gillingham, a Wesleyan Minister who with his wife and family moved to Riverton in 1897.
Minnie Cooper died at the Riverton Soldiers Memorial Hospital on August 17th, 1923, just 3 weeks after her second daughter had married.
Minnie as a child 1881
Minnie 1920
The Australian Christian Commonwealth
October 5th, 1923
IN MEMORIUM: Mrs R.H. Cooper of “Kelvin Bank” Riverton S.A.
By the death of Mrs R.H. Cooper our Riverton Church has lost a devoted member and a consistent worker. Mrs Cooper first became associated with Riverton in 1896 when her father, Rev. John Gillingham was appointed to the Wesleyan Circuit.
During her father’s term of ministry Minnie Elizabeth married Robert Harvie Cooper, a member of an old and loyal Methodist family. She was then associated, until Union, with the Bible Christian Church and afterwards in the Methodist United Church where she continued her activities with the same whole-hearted zeal.
As a daughter of the Manse and during the varying periods of her husband’s occupancy of the office of Circuit Steward, the equipment and maintenance of the manse was under her constant care.
Mrs Cooper’s home was hospitably opened as required to visiting preachers and on the various ministers of the Circuit and their families, she showered many kindnesses. Whilst deeply attached to her own local church Mrs Cooper also had the large vision of the true Christian and the Women’s Auxiliary of Foreign Missions and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union claimed her ready service. To all activities and organizations for the betterment of her town she also gave willing assistance.
Those who knew her best, however, knew that her home and family were her chief sphere of service and the calls of outside duties, important and claimant though they might have been were never permitted to usurp the place of the most sacred of all spheres, that of wife and mother.
Her husband has lost a loyal supporter and her daughters, a wise and sympathetic guide and counsellor. For a considerable period prior to her death, pain was her constant companion; but her sufferings were borne with Christian fortitude which never allowed her to become morbid or embittered.
Many touching tributes to her gracious personality have been paid by her large circle of friends and her memory will long be cherished in the district and Church which she loved and served so well. She has passed from this world of shadow and transience to that realm of light and immortality where dwell the faithful in the presence of God.
To the bereaved husband and daughters, Corrie, Alma, Chrissie, Stella, Brenda and Joyce we tender our heartfelt sympathy and pray that God in His infinite mercy will comfort their sad hearts with His grace and compassion.
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