Bettie Minette Cooper

With profound sadness, we announce that Bettie Minette Cooper, age 87, of Norfolk, Virginia, died on October 14, 2025.
Minette was born on December 23, 1937, in New York City, NY to Louis Leyens Switzer and Bettie Kleisdorf Switzer. She was raised in a family that valued music, arts, faith, and community service. She inherited her love of music and the arts from her mother, for whom she was named, and a deep sense of civic duty from her father, a respected business and community leader.
Minette grew up in Vicksburg, Mississippi where she attended grade school before going to Knox School in New York for high school, graduating top of her class with honors. She continued her education at Smith College and later Barnard College earning a degree in Musicology and an emphasis in Fine Arts in 1960. She formed a lifelong attachment to Smith, and remained an active and devoted alumna.
In December 1956, she met Charles Cooper on a blind date in New York City, and they married on June 22, 1958. They started married life in New York before settling in Charles' hometown of Norfolk in 1962, where they established their home and built a life of partnership, purpose, and unwavering commitment to one another that lasted for 66 years until Charles' recent passing earlier this year.
Minette and Charles were blessed with three children: Brooke (Babette) Cooper, Erik (Betsy) Cooper, and Jeff (Allison) Cooper, and together they cherished their seven grandchildren: Hannah, Tanhen, Kacey, Rena, Rachel, Nathan, and Ryan. Minette took immense pride in her role as mother and grandmother, and Charles and her home was the heart of celebrations and gatherings. She was a devoted correspondent who maintained deep connections across her extended family, and she took particular joy in reconnecting with her Danish relatives. Minette was also a cherished presence in the lives of her stepsister Dee (Lee) Austin, her nieces and nephews, Wendy Cooper (deceased), John (Monica) Cooper, Kate (Barry) Augus, Trip McGleughlin (deceased), Peter (Sally) McGleughlin, and Jade McGleuglin (Sue Hyde), her beloved goddaughter Mildred (Howard) Amer, and their children. Among her many traditions was the annual Cooper Gazette, a holiday letter that delighted more than 2,000 recipients each year and became a cherished way to keep her far-flung family and friends connected through the decades.
For over six decades, Minette Cooper was a tireless "professional volunteer" and a passionate, transformative voice for the arts and education throughout Hampton Roads. She served as a board member with and received many awards and recognitions from a range of organizations over the years. Of particular importance to Minette was her involvement with Arts for Learning Virginia (formerly Young Audiences) as well as its national organization, the Virginia Symphony, and the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads. Her contributions were not measured by title alone, but by the countless hours she dedicated to making the arts and education inclusive and accessible to everyone, and the profound impact her leadership and generosity made on our community.
Minette's faith was equally important to her. Ohef Sholom Temple held deep spiritual and communal significance for Minette, and she served as a long-time board member and President of the Temple, a distinction as its first woman to hold this position. Minette also valued the preservation of Jewish heritage, and she served as board member and President of the Southern Jewish Historical Society, as well as a founding member of the Friends of Chevra T'helim.
Throughout her life, Minette pursued various interests and hobbies with passion, and particularly enjoyed sharing them with family and friends. She loved to play piano and to sing and was a member of the Virginia Symphony and Ohef Sholom Temple choruses. Her calendar was always full with attendance at concerts, operas, plays, and other performances. She was a prodigious reader, particularly of Jane Austin and Agatha Christie novels, and no newspaper, article, or book she received went unread.
Charles and Minette shared a love of travel, exploring the world together and with their children and grandchildren. They believed in the importance of broadening horizons through travel and sought to introduce their family to different cultures and perspectives.
Minette loved animals and nature. She was known for her generations of Cooper beagles, and she loved to bird watch from her home on the Lafayette River. She also supported various environmental causes and participated in the raising of oysters on her pier that would then be planted on reefs to clean the River.
The family would like to thank Minette and Charles' staff for their continuing support over the years, including Connie Robertson, Alphonzo Lee, Katie Andrews, and Tameca Andrews, as well as Kay Laughinhouse, Shirley Munden, Doris Blount, Mary Johnson, Nancy Bridges, and "young" George Boone.
A Memorial Service will be held on Sunday, October 19, 2025 at 2 PM at Ohef Sholom Temple, 530 Raleigh Ave, Norfolk.
In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests memorial contributions be made to causes dear to Minette's heart: Arts for Learning Virginia, Ohef Sholom Temple, Friends of Chevra T'helim, and the Virginia Symphony.