Richard "Ricky" E. Cooper's Obituary
Ricky was born June 1, 1947, and he finished his race and received his checkered flag on May 31, 2024, surrounded by his family. Born in Newport News, Virginia and a proud Hampton resident until 2005 when he and his wife, Becky Cooper moved to Alachua, Florida. He loved NASCAR and over the years some of his favorite drivers were Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott. He also loved playing golf, duck pin bowling back in the day, building model cars, collecting NASCAR collectible cars and playing solitaire. Ricky was always first in line for food at any family gathering and he didn’t mind us teasing him. Ricky didn’t meet a stranger, he loved to strike up a conversation with anyone. He loved to go play “his numbers” for the lotto, go to Walmart and go pay bills in person, just so he could talk to people. He worked as a produce manager in many different grocery stores over the years, Pantry Pride, Super Fresh and Food Lion to name a few.
He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Rebecca “Becky” Cooper, his daughter, Christine (Shanon) Spears, Richard (Katy) Cooper, grandchildren, Kaleb (Lindsey) Spears, Kyle Spears, William Thomas Cooper, Lucy Ann Cooper (his baby girl forever), his great grandsons, Danny and Myles Spears and brother Lawrence (Debbie) Cooper.
Ricky's Celebration of Life will be held on October 26th, 2024 at 2pm at the home of Rich and Katy Cooper in Newport News, Va. Please contact Christy Spears (daughter), Rich or Katy Cooper for address. This will be a true Celebration of Life for our Dad. We will be having an outside cook-out with a Nascar theme. We can't wait to see everyone and share all the stories and good times! We will save Dad the first in line spot for food!
In lieu of flowers please donate to the American Heart Association, heart.org.
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