A MOTHER who managed the food section of Oxford’s Marks and Spencer and married a freeman of the city has died aged 101.

Constance ‘Connie’ Kathleen Cooper was described by her son, Terry, as a ‘wonderful wife, mother and grandmother’ with a ‘sweet and helpful nature’.

Renowned for her aptitude for numbers, Mrs Cooper worked in the centre of Oxford for many years.

Mrs Cooper was born in the city on June 24, 1916, the eldest daughter of Frederick and Georgina Grant.

The family lived in Cowley.

Mrs Cooper won a scholarship to The Central School in George Street, Oxford.

From there she worked at Mowbrays before joining the staff at Marks and Spencer when the company opened a branch in Oxford, where she was proud of holding the number one ‘clocking in’ number for the Cornmarket Street store.

During the Second World War, Mrs Cooper was promoted to manager of the food section and dealt with the purchasing of all fresh produce for the store.

She had an exceptional aptitude for numbers and would amaze shop assistants by her ability to add up long columns of figures in her head.

In 1933, Mrs Cooper was walking with her friend across Cowley Marsh when two young men rode up on their bicycles and stopped to talk to them.

One of them was Reg Cooper, who lived just around the corner from Mrs Cooper in Wilkins Road, Cowley. They began courting, and the couple were married at St James Church, Cowley on March 9, 1940.

Days later Mr Cooper was posted to Northern Ireland with his field gun battery, part of the Royal Artillery unit based at Cowley Barracks.

He went on to join the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers to work on tanks. He eventually achieved the revered rank of armament artificer class one and ran an Army-controlled civilian workshop employing more than 2,000 men in Italy.

After Mr Cooper left the Army in 1952 the couple settled in Seacourt Road, Botley and had one son.

Mrs Cooper became a housewife after their son Terry was born and Mr Cooper originally worked at Pressed Steel Fisher as an inspector but then moved to Hunt and Broadhurst, the educational stationers in Botley Road, until he retired in 1977.

The couple were married for 68 years until Mr Cooper passed away in 2008, aged 93.

A few years earlier the couple had left Oxford to live in Clevedon, closer to their two grandchildren, Jonathan and Peter .

When Mr Cooper passed away, Mrs Cooper was looked after by son Terry and daughter-in-law Lin in a flat within their house.

On Saturday, December, 23, Mrs Cooper was admitted to Weston General Hospital, in Weston-Super-Mare, for treatment for an infection, where she died on January 2.

She will be buried alongside Mr Cooper following a service in the chapel of Botley Cemetery at 12pm on Thursday, February 1.