Charles Memucan Cooper III 

Second Lieutenant Charles Memucan Cooper III was killed in a plane crash in Texas on March 20, 1944 while serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II.  He was 23 years old.

Charles Memucan Cooper III was born on June 28, 1920 in Henderson, North Carolina, the son of Charles     Memucan Cooper Jr. and Anne Meredith Jones Cooper.  He graduated from Henderson High School in the Class of 1937. He attended Wake Forest College before volunteering for duty when the National Guard in Henderson was mobilized in September, 1940.

2Lt Cooper served with the 105th Medical Regiment at Fort Jackson, South Carolina but transferred to the Army Air Corps immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

After training at Lake Field, Arizona; Kelly Field, San Antonio Texas; Jones Field, Bonham, Texas; and Majors Field, Greenville, Texas,  2Lt Cooper received his wings at Ellington Field, Houston, Texas and was classified as a bomber pilot. He died in the crash of a bomber near Biggs Field at El Paso, Texas on March 20, 1944.

At his funeral service at First Baptist Church, Henderson, the Rev. Mr. Garner read the poem “High Flight”; and W. T. Hearne, Band Director at Henderson High School, played “Taps” at his burial in Elmwood Cemetery in Henderson. 

Last edited:  13 May 2026