Coy Mae Hines Ward Cooper: Going Where No Bossier Woman Had Gone Before

 Coy Mae Hines Ward Cooper, local businesswoman and trail-blazing civic leader, is this week’s Bossier woman to highlight for this last week of March, Women’s History Month. She was born in Mooringsport, La. on April 3, 1924 and passed away on February 27, 2022 as a resident of the Bloom of Bossier City. In fact, it was the residents of the Bloom, where I present a monthly local history program, who told me about Mrs. Cooper, and that I must look into and present her history. By about the third of dozens of newspaper articles I found about her, and her detailed obituary in the Bossier Press Tribune, I was absolutely convinced they were right.

Coy Mae Hines and her family followed the oil boom, settling in Welch, Louisiana, where she graduated from high school at age 16. She worked at a café in Welch workers (Jefferson Davis Parish) popular with oilfield workers. It was just a matter of a few months before she was running the café. She also met and married a petroleum engineer, John Ward.

After the birth of her second son John, she went to work as a lab assistant at the Arkansas Fuel Oil Company in Bossier City, LA. at the “Grease Plant.” Then the correspondent for the “Bossier City Grease Plant” in “The Planters Press” newspaper wrote, “It’s Private Ward now for Coy Mae Ward, former Grease Plant employee, who recently joined the Women’s Army Corps. She is stationed at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. for six weeks basic training. So, it’s time to wish another, good luck on these army careers.“ Coy was assigned to the medical unit at the Harmon General Hospital in Longview, TX. She fulfilled a very dire wartime need for medical technicians.

Upon leaving the service, she took a job as a fiscal accountant for the Veterans Administration in Shreveport. She and John Ward divorced and she later married George Cooper, superintendent of the Arkansas Fuel Oil Company, in 1946. They were married for fifty years before his death. Coy and George bought one hundred acres northeast of I-220 and Stockwell Road on what is now Coy Road. They leased another three hundred acres and raised cattle and their sons on the ranch.

George continued to work the ranch. Coy also worked as office manager and accountant for Shreveport Sash and Door Company then became a part-owner. Later, she, Bruce and Donny Logan, and Nancy Barnett formed Builders Millwork. After a few years, they purchased and operated Bossier City’s Bolinger Millwork and Supply Company. She also became partners in the J.R. Wright Construction Company.

Coy became involved in parish politics in 1981 when she was nominated as the first woman to serve on the Bossier Parish Levee Board by Louisiana State Representative, the late Walter Bigby, and appointed by the late Governor Edwin Edwards. Coy learned all she could about the levee system, walking essentially every inch of them. And, owning property on Stockwell Rd area for 22 years at the time, “I can tell you quite a bit about water”, she said to the “Bossier Press Tribune” in August, 1998. That area flooded in 1997 nearly to the point of evacuation.

Coy Cooper also became the first woman on a local labor board, an area economic development board and the first woman on the Red River Waterway Commission. She served as Treasurer and Financial Officer and was first only woman chairman of the Board of Directors of the Greater Bossier Economic Development Foundation. She was elected to the Bossier City Council as Member at Large in 1997, and worked to bring to fruition the following projects: the CenturyLink Center (now Brookshires Grocery Arena); the Louisiana Boardwalk; the Benton Road overpass; the renovation of Old Bossier; the sale of Bossier Medical Center; the Viking Drive extension; and the Arthur Teague Parkway extension.

She drew a standing ovation when she stepped down from the Bossier City Council in 2001 after her last meeting as councilwoman.

Despite all her “firsts” as a woman, Coy made it known in biographical articles that she was “not a woman’s libber.” When she won the ATHENA award for local businesswomen at the age of 70 in 1994, she said about her 45 years in the building supply business, “I’ve lived in a man’s world since I was 25 years old. I feel any woman can make a niche in a man’s world. You’ve got to work hard.” She told the “Shreveport Journal” in October, 1979, “I’ve always been aggressive and outspoken. I felt like if I can’t hold my own in a man‘s world then I shouldn’t be there.”

Despite not claiming the title of Woman’s Libber, there’s no doubt that right here in Bossier, Ms. Cooper put a woman’s face, and sharp mind, in places where they’d not been seen before, and helped to be sure that there were more women to follow in places where important decisions on the future of Bossier were made. I’m sure by now you can see why the friends Mrs. Cooper left behind wanted her legacy to be known.

If you have stories or photographs of some of the area’s civic-minded women, or of Bossier women’s “firsts” we’d love to see or hear them, and perhaps make copies for our collection, with your permission. If you would like to have our “Women Who Made a Difference in Bossier Parish” program, which includes Coy Cooper (in Part 2) or any of our other programs presented to your group, please contact us, as well. We are located at 2206 Beckett St, Bossier City, LA and are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok. 

Image: Photograph of the winner of the Chamber Commercial Beautification Award for the month of October 1980, Wright Cooper Plaza, 707 Benton Road, Bossier City, LA.  (L to R) Coy Cooper, Randy Wright, Carolyn Tauzin-Chamber Representative, Graham Rogers-Chamber President.

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Beauticians and the Civil Rights Movement

(L to R) Mamie Stewart Love Wallace, Annie Townsend Brewster, and Bernice Smith.

In the 1920s, Mamie Stewart, Annie Townsend, and Bernice Smith were born in Benton, La, where they grew up learning that not all citizens in America were given equal rights. Little did they know that a century later, they would still be remembered and talked about for their never-ending pursuit for equal rights and reconciliation between races.

These three girls grew up to become successful business owners, civic leaders, and civil rights activists. Stewart, better known today as Mamie Love Wallace, founded the Modern Beauty Shop on Milam Street in the business district of the old Allendale neighborhood in Shreveport. Townsend, better known as Ann Brewster, was the co-owner. Later, Smith went to cosmetology school and went to work at Modern Beauty Shop.

These women were more than just beauticians. They were entrepreneurs, leaders, activists, and freedom fighters. Being self-employed, the women could be more active in fighting for civil rights than if they had been in the employ of another. They did not have to fear losing their jobs if they were found to be involved in any activities to advance equal rights.

In an interview, Wallace explained that her mother was a civil rights worker whose involvement in the movement got her interested. Her mother was a teacher, and many of her siblings also became teachers, but Wallace saw how the fear of losing your job hindered the work that needed to be done, which is why she became a beautician.

As an officer of the Louisiana state beauticians Wallace attended the National Beauticians' Convention in New Orleans in 1958. It was at this convention where Wallace met Martin Luther King Jr. for the first time. King spoke to the beauticians about the advantages they had as self-employed people and how they could support the civil rights movement.

A few months later, King made his first visit to Shreveport, where he spoke at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference at Galilee Baptist Church. The fear of violent repercussions made most churches afraid to open their doors to King, but Wallace's brother, the Rev. Jessie Taylor Stewart, was the pastor of Galilee Baptist Church, and he was not afraid.

The newspapers would not print the announcement of his scheduled visit, so flyers were made and distributed at barbershops and beauty salons like the Modern Beauty Shop. The majority of people in attendance besides the usual congregants were barbers, beauticians, and ministers. Again, those not self-employed were afraid to lose their jobs, and they often avoided taking any chances.

The Modern Beauty Shop, like so many, became a place for strategy meetings and education about the movement. It also served to provide a safe place for community members to communicate about issues and events. These women talked to their clients about the importance of being an informed participant in the voting process. If they were not registered to vote, they would be educated on the literacy test and provided with voter registration forms.

All three beauticians were known for their participation in countless voter registration drives, marches, sit-ins, and other non-violent protests. Smith was among the plaintiffs in the civil rights lawsuit that helped to desegregate Caddo Parish Schools, and her daughter, Brenda, was the first black student to integrate at Byrd High School. Wallace was a plaintiff in a lawsuit to integrate restaurants and was one of the first black people to eat at Woolworth's diner after integration.

Brewster was especially outspoken about the need for justice and was known for being arrested for protests that she was not in attendance. When students demonstrated at Booker T. Washington High School, police officers showed up at the salon to arrest her, and when she explained that she was not there, the police said, "her name was mentioned." Brewster opened her home for NAACP meetings and local gatherings of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King shared his vision with a group of like-minded people in her Allendale home. She also provided food and shelter for freedom riders that came through town.

These women cared about people, and they were passionate about fixing the injustices they faced. They fought and risked their lives to make a better world for themselves and future generations. They were instrumental in changing the course of black Americans' civil rights in the local community.

To learn more about black history in Bossier Parish, visit the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center, 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City. Whether you want to know about local history or research your family history, we are here to help. Can't come in, call 318-746-7717 or email history-center@bossierlibrary.org with your request.

By: Amy Robertson