The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 94, No. 108, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 5, 2014 Page: 4 of 10
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GUEST VIEW
What is
an EDF?
This is the first of a series of columns about what is hap-
pening at the Baytown Area/ West Chambers County Eco-
nomic Development Foundation.
The Baytown Area/ West Chambers County Economic
Development Foundation is designated by the Governor’s
Office of Economic Development and Tourism, Great-
er Houston Partnership, City of Baytown and Chambers
County as the only economic development organization
covering Baytown and Chambers County. An econom-
ic development foundation is dedicated to improving the
quality of life in a community by attracting new business
and retaining established businesses to build and grow a
healthy economy and stable tax base.
An organization dedicated to economic development is
not a new idea. Many cities have them.
The EDF recognizes that a city has a development cycle:
Employment growth leads to new households,
which leads to population and housing growth,
which leads to retail and entertainment growth,
which leads to amenities,
which leads to community improvements,
which leads to attractiveness,
which leads to — yes! — new households.
In a comprehensive sense, any issue or event that con-
tributes in a positive or negative way to a community, can
be labeled “economic development.”
Who thought creating an EDF was a good idea?
The City of Baytown, Baytown Chamber of Commerce,
Chambers County and private companies formed the non-
profit Baytown Area/West Chambers County Economic
Development Foundation to serve as a liaison between
public and private sector entities and the community for
expansion and troubleshooting.
Representatives from the City of Baytown, Harris Coun-
ty, Chambers County, major industries, chambers of com-
merce, local media and residents form the board guiding
the EDF.
Financial support for the three-person office comes from
Chambers County, Harris County, Port of Houston, the
Baytown Municipal Development District, as well as pri-
vate business and industry.
When did this start?
In 1986 the U.S. economy was struggling and one of
Baytown’s largest employers, U.S. Steel’s Texas Works,
was closing. The Baytown Area/West Chambers County
Economic Development Foundation was fonned to foster
economic growth.
Its formal title acknowledges that the city spreads over
two counties, and that what is good for Chambers County
is good for Baytown. Today the EDF covers all the unin-
corporated areas of Chambers County.
Where are we going?
The EDF can’t dictate the future, although it promotes
the trade area to entrepreneurs.
We help incoming companies, expanding businesses and
visionary city leaders pursue their goals by providing infor-
mation on the available land, labor and capital.
This is the office that businesses can use to get data on
the workforce, tax incentive programs, foreign trade zones
and public policy. We are the go-to people to get things
done.
Why bother with an EDF?
Baytown is growing.
And everyone has an opinion about changes in Baytown.
Ask the mayor or your congressman. Ask the driver that
navigates Highway 146 traffic every morning. Ask the
family that lives along Cedar Bayou. Ask the kids being
dropped off at the mall. Or ask the single mom with a pre-
schooler.
The EDF helps the city leaders and citizens look at them-
selves realistically and acknowledge change while it culti-
vates a growing economy.
TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Thursday, June 5, the 156th day of 2014.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 5, 2004, Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th pres-
ident of the United States, died in Los Angeles at age 93
after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.
On this date:
In 1794, Congress passed the Neutrality Act, which pro-
hibited Americans from taking part in any military action
against a country that was at peace with the United States.
In 1933, the United States went off the gold standard.
In 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a
speech at Harvard University in which he outlined an aid
program for Europe that came to be known as The Mar-
shall Plan.
In 1950, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Henderson v. Unit-
ed States, struck down racially segregated railroad dining
cars.
In 1964, The Rolling Stones performed the first concert
of their first U.S. tour in San Bernardino, California.
In 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los
Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel after claiming victory in Cal-
ifornia’s Democratic presidential primary. Gunman Sirhan
Bishara Sirhan was immediately arrested.
In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control reported that
five homosexuals in Los Angeles had come down with a
rare kind of pneumonia; they were the first recognized cas-
es of what later became known as AIDS.
Thought for Today: “I know in my heart that man is
good. That what is right will always eventually triumph.
And there’s purpose and worth to each and every life.”
— President Ronald Reagan (1911 -2004)
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Shine on, Mr. John Cooper
Baytown Sun Photo/Jane Howard Lee
John Alfred Cooper, right, offers a smile as he and his friend Peck Meier meet to
discuss his decades of work as the Trophy Barbershop’s shoeshine man.
At age 82, John Alfred Cooper is
still shining.
The shine comes from within now
days though - an inner glow that
comes from knowledge of a life well
lived, a life based on faith, family,
friends and a good day’s work.
His face is one known to genera-
tions of Baytown residents. He was
the shoeshine man who was part and
parcel of the experience when any-
one went to the near-iconic Trophy
Barbershop. But people didn’t just
go there to get their tresses trimmed
or to admire the animal mounts that
gave the place that name. Many
dropped in with an armload of shoes
and boots to see John Cooper.
He was that good at what he did.
Cooper didn’t come to his life’s
work by a direct route. He never in-
tended to shine shoes for a living.
Bom and raised in Houston, he at-
tended Jack Yates High School, then
went into the U.S. Army. He didn’t
last long there though.
“After eight months I got a medi-
cal discharge because I was having
seizures,” he said to me when I vis-
ited him recently at the Baytown re-
tirement home where he lives now.
He didn’t know back then that
those discharge papers would have
such a profound effect on his life,
but they did.
After his discharge from the mil-
itary, he tried to find work but ran
into the same roadblock time and
time again.
“Nobody wanted to hire me,” he
explained. “They didn’t want to hire
somebody who had seizures.”
He was able to obtain a small
disability pension, but it certainly
wasn’t enough to live on, much less
enough to keep a wife happy and
raise a family on and that’s some-
thing he wanted to do, so Cooper
had to find a job. His doctor and the
Army recruitment officer who had
signed him into the military offered
advice.
“They said there was really just
two things somebody like me could
do for a living,” he said. “I could cut
lawns or I could shine shoes.”
“The doctor said cutting grass out
in the heat would bring on more sei-
zures so that left me with the shoe
shine business.”
He finally found his place at a
Houston bowling alley. He shined
customers’ shoes and cleaned up the
place after hours. Later he worked
the counter as well. Along the way,
he learned to bowl.
“My ambition then was to be a
pro bowler and I got good and I did
it for a while,” he said.
Cooper’s average was “200 and
some,” he said coyly.
He didn’t bowl on any official
tours but rather bowled in private
pot tournaments where five or 10 or
20 people would all put $5 or $10 in
the pot, winner take all.
Like any good pool shark or card
shark, Cooper lost just often enough
to keep people coming back to play
him and he made some pretty good
money.
“But then I got married and she
didn’t want to be married to a gam-
bler so she didn’t want me bowling
no more,” he said.
So back to shin-
ing shoes.
Cooper and his
bride Odeal moved
to Baytown. She
heard that the
shoeshine man at
what was then Jim-
my’s Barbershop
had moved on and
her husband ended
up taking that position.
Jimmy Carpenter owned the
place. A big-time hunter, he deco-
rated the place with the taxidermic
mounts of the birds and animals
he hunted which led, eventually, to
changing the name of the barber-
shop to the Trophy. Cooper started
there in 1955, charging 35 cents a
shine at first.
“He was a nice guy, a good man
to work for,” said Cooper. “He paid
for everything I used - the shoe pol-
ish and all - and I kept whatever I
charged people and he paid me extra
to keep the floors clean,” said Coo-
per.
In the early days, Cooper consid-
ered it a good day when he brought
home ten dollars from shining
shoes.
Of course, in the ‘50s, that was
pretty good money. As time went by
and his reputation grew, his take got
better and better. He shined shoes
for many people who came in for
a haircut. Pleased with his work,
they’d come back to drop off more
shoes even when they didn’t need a
trim.
He said he got busiest each year at
rodeo time.
“The ladies would bring in their
husbands’ boots and their own boots
to shine up for the rodeo,” he said.
“One lady brought in 20 pair at one
time. That sure was a good day.”
The shoeshine business at the
Trophy helped John and Odeal Coo-
per raise their two adopted children.
She died nine years ago and he hung
up his shoeshine kit in 2008. But
John has two grandchildren now
and also enjoys plenty of love and
attention from Odeal’s sister, Ellen
Clark Perkins, and her family.
He worked at the Trophy through
two more owners, both of whom
were real good to him, he said, then
he retired in 2008, finally hanging
up his shoeshine kit for good.
He lives in a retirement facility
now, but stays active in his church,
the Pruett & Lobit Street Church of
Christ. A group of his church friends
rotate turns to pick him up and take
him to services on Sundays and
Wednesdays.
My friends Peck and Druise Mei-
er are among them and the idea
for this column about John Cooper
came from them.
Longtime business owners here in
Baytown, who raised a whole herd
of kids, the Meiers have known him
for about 35 years - from the bar-
bershop first, then church - and they
enjoy spending time with him on
church days.
“He’s always on time, always de-
pendable, just like he was when he
was shining shoes,” Peck told me.
“And people know him everywhere
he goes. People come up to him and
say ‘you remember me, John? Me
and my daddy used to see you at the
Trophy.’”
“He’s a walking piece of Baytown
history.”
Cooper doesn’t know about that,
but he knows that he has had a good
life because he took some good ad-
vice.
“That Army recruitment guy, he
told me if I always did a real good
job and let people know I’d be right
there when they needed me and I’d
build my business because they
would come back again and again.”
“He was right, they did.”
Shine on, John Cooper.
Jane Howard Lee is a contrib-
uting writer at The Sun. She can
be reached at viewpoints@bay-
townsun.com, Attention: Jane Lee.
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Bloom, David. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 94, No. 108, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 5, 2014, newspaper, June 5, 2014; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth745958/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.