This is a very deteriorated carte de viste photo of my great uncle Waldo Emerson Cooper, son of James R. Cooper and Ada Steves Oram. He was born 21 January 1890 in Somerville, Massachusetts and died in 1918 during the Spanish influenza epidemic. He married my great aunt Leonore Carrie Allen on 29 December 1912 in Essex, Massachusetts. His early death at age 27 left his wife a widow with three babies. My grandfather was only in the 8th grade, but he had to leave school to go to work in a leather factor in Westborough, Massachusetts to help support his sister and her babies. Aunt Lena played the player piano in a movie theater as a part time job. Eventually these young children were raised by their paternal grandparents in Westborough. Aunt Lena remarried to Thomas J. McCormack some years later and adopted another son.
Waldo Emerson Cooper, born 31 October 1913 in Westborough, Massachusetts.
I was lucky, this photo was marked with his name and the date July 31, 1914 (he was 9 months old).
Carolyn Alma Cooper, born 24 November 1915 in Westborough.
Charles Cooper, born ???
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I had family who died in that flu epidemic also Heather. Very sad, especially when they died so young.
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