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Elizabeth Whitaker Keepers Cooper

 

The following historical footnote concerns Eliza Whitaker, wife of Louis Keepers, and is a verbatim copy of a clipping taken from the New York Herald dated 5-28-1919.

MRS. ELIZA COOPER, CIVIL WAR NURSE, ACTRESS AND AUTHORESS DIES AT 82

GAVE HER SERVICES TO SOLDIERS OF BOTH UNION AND CONFEDERATE ARMIES

SAVED HER HUSBAND FROM DEATH AS A SPY BY MAKING APPEAL TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN

 

Mrs. Eliza Cooper, a noted character during Civil War days, who served both the Union and Confederate sides as a hospital nurse, died yester­day at her home, 146 Devoe Street, Brooklyn, from infirmities of old age. She was eighty-two years old.

 

Born in London, England, she came to America in 1852. Her first husband was Louis Keepers, who served in the Confederate Army and died sometime after the war. She then married Harry Cooper, who was a veteran of the Union Army and died about ten years ago.

 

During the war Colonel Keepers was captured in the Federal Forces, court-martialed and sentenced to be shot as a spy. He managed to get a message to his wife who hurried to Washington and obtained an interview with Pres­ident Lincoln. A suspension of the sentence was ordered and after the case had been reviewed Mr. Lincoln ordered the release of Colonel Keepers. Mrs. Keepers then served as a nurse in the Confederate Army, later giving her services to the men of the Union Army as well.

 

As a child Mrs. Cooper appeared on the stage, playing with Laura Keene in such plays as 'Dick Turpin', the 'Ragpickers of Paris', and others popular at the time. After the Civil War she wrote several novels and books of a semi-historical nature. The best known of her writings were her 'Memoires' and 'Tales of the Civil War'. Mrs. Cooper leaves two sons by her former marriage - William and Frank Keepers - and a daughter, Mrs. Maude Louise Sullivan.

 

It is of interest to note that Laura Keene was the feminine lead in the play 'Our American Cousin' which was playing at the Ford Theatre the night that John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln.

 

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