Don Soper turned 98 yesterday

Tuesday, January 29, Dad turned 98 years young.

He was born on a small farm near the tiny central Illinois town of Milmine. As a young boy his parents moved the family, dad and his older brother Carroll, into nearby Bement, the Piatt County seat, where they operated a restaurant for a time.

But money was also in short supply and at an early age dad learned to appreciate the connection between hard work and making money. While he never made much of the latter, he spent the next 70 years or more working hard for it nonetheless. He was, as an Irishman was heard to say once, "blessed with work."

After graduating from Bement High School in 1928 (that's his senior picture above) he enrolled in Brown Business College in Decatur, and in fact would spend much of his life in Decatur. Dad spent his life selling, mostly food: potato chips, cookies, he loved selling, he loved spending time with people, telling jokes, and just laughing about life.

He was married three times, but, as they say, the third time's a charm, and his last wife, Helen, was his best friend and loving companion for nearly forty years. She passed away in September of 1994.

After he stopped work, sometime in his 80s as I recall, he turned to spending his time volunteering for local Decatur organizations such as the Golden K (retired Kiwanis). He truly enjoyed his time as a tutor at Futures Unlimited, and continued to tutor until just before his death in 2004.

Happy Birthday Pop!

Love,

Don and Steve