Eva Diesner Cooper

Eva Diesner Cooper, 99, of Sugar Land, TX, who lived in El Paso for 48 years, went to be with the Lord on October 23, 2021. She lived a long and extraordinary life.

Eva, affectionately known as “Bawa” by her family, was born on June 9, 1922, in Polkowitz, Germany. She grew up in Germany in the 1930s during the Third Reich, and she participated in the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Known for her feisty and free-spirited personality, Eva has the honor of having been expelled from the Hitler Youth program that all German kids had to attend.

She lived through the trauma of World War II as a single woman with a baby, and fled the Russian invasion to settle in the Bavarian town of Bad Tolz. Here, Eva raised her daughter, Barbara. While working as a translator at an American Army base in Germany after the war, where she met General and future U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, she fell in love with Lt. Col. Scott Cooper. They married and had a daughter, Carol, and moved from Germany to Killeen, Texas, then to El Paso, Texas, where they lived for several decades.

Eva served as President of the Faculty Women’s Club of the University of Texas at El Paso, and as President of the UTEP Women’s Auxiliary. For many years, Eva served as a Westside Precinct election judge for El Paso.

Known and loved for her larger-than-life personality, sass, and humor, Eva charmed everyone she met.

Eva was preceded in death by her husband, Scott Cooper, in 1984, and her daughter, Barbara Gormly, in 2017. She is survived by her beloved daughter, Carol Cooper Leverett and grandson Jason Leverett, both of Missouri City, Texas; granddaughters Kirsten (Brad) Ghaster of Phoenix, AZ; Kellie Gormly of Pittsburgh, PA; Jackie (Zach) Wasson and great-grandson Adam, of Alameda, CA.

A graveside service will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, December 3, 2021, at Memory Gardens of the Valley, 4900 McNutt Road, Santa Teresa, N.M.