CITY HALL TO CLOSE FOR COOPER RITES

City hall will be closed from 10:30 to 12 today in memory of Paul Anderson Cooper, for 23 years city attorney, whose funeral will be held at 11 o'clock this morning a Trinity Episcopal Church. Interment will be in Elmwood Cemetery.

Mr Cooper, a senior member of the firm of Cooper and Gary, died Monday night at his residence, 2605 Canterbury Road, Forest Hills. He had been in ill health since last October and in critical condition for the past month.

City officials joined yesterday in paying tribute to Mr Cooper, who in addtion to his large law practice was active in a number of organizations. He had been president of the Richland Bar Association, of Forest Lake Club, and of the Cotillion Club, and had served as chairman of the executive committee of the South Carolina Bar Association. He was a member of Trinity Church.

Born in the Indiantown community of Williamsburg County, a son of the late William Cooper and Esther Daniel Cooper, he moved to Columbia when a boy, and prior to entering the University of South Carolina, from which he was graduated in law in 1914, was connected with the old Carolina National Bank. He had practiced law there ever since being admitted to the bar, save during the First world War when he was in the service as a first lieutenant.

Mr Cooper was widely popular and widely known and there are many to regret his death. Both Mayor Dreher and City Manager McNayr issued statements yesterday in appreciation of his long service as the city's legal advisor. Mayor Dreher termed the death of Mr Cooper "a great loss to the City of Columbia, not only to those of us connected with the city government, but also to his innumerable other friends. He has represented the city in a distinguished manner and was a valuable personal friend."

City Manager McNayr said that although he had known Mr Cooper only a few months he considered him one of the most likeable and competent men with whom it has been his pleasure to be associated.

Surviving are his widow, Mrs Margaret Harris Cooper and four sisters: Mrs Samuel Rhea Preston, Mrs Daniel DeTreville and Mrs Grace Cooper North, all of Columbia, and Mrs George Easterday of Coronada, California, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Active pallbearers will be nephews Charles F Cooper, James B Cooper, Frank B Cooper, Samuel R Preston, Paul C DeTreville, Edwin H Cooper and John S Cooper.

The State; Date: 07-11-1956; Page: 12;