Emma Nora (Cora) Mohler-Cootes

Emma Nora (Cora) Mohler-Cootes, 102

Homemaker and Retail Sales Manager

b.16Feb1910   d.17Aug2012

Emma N. Cootes (Mohler), 102, residing at Rose Park Manor AFH in Kenmore, WA, died peacefully on Friday, August 17, 2012.  She was formerly a resident of Lititz, PA (twice) where she met her husband, Harold Edward (Edwin) Cootes, in 1935: They married in 1936.   She was then working at the Lititz theatre as office manager and ticket seller.  She often said she was hired because she was the only applicant small enough to fit into the ticket booth (4’10” tall).   She graduated from Pottstown, PA High School in 1928.

She and Harold and son Kent Lee (b. May 12, 1940) moved to Maryland in 1940, and then to Detroit, MI for the duration of WWII, where Harold helped design the Sherman and Patton tanks.  After the War he worked for what is now Tyco Electronics (formerly AMP, Inc.) in Harrisburg, PA.     Emma and Harold moved there in 1945, back to her beloved Pennsylvania, where she lived for all but 10 years of her life.

Her second son, James Edward, was born May 25,1946 (d. Oct. 20,1976).  Emma and Harold lived in the Harrisburg (East) area (Lenker Manor) for 45 years and were married for 61 years.  Both sons graduated from the Pennsylvania State University.  Kent went on to get advanced degrees from American University and the University of Washington. When the boys were grown, Emma went back to work as a gift shop manager in Paxtang, PA, a mile from home.   Emma moved to Lititz again in 1996 when Harold suffered a stroke: he died May 18, 1998.  She lived in Lititz until 2007 when she moved to Kenmore, WA to be close to Kent, who survives her.

James E. Cootes died October 20, 1976 and is buried in Blue Ridge Memorial Gardens, east of Harrisburg, PA.  Emma’s parents were William George Mohler and Nora Alice Henry of Canonsburg, PA and later, Pottstown, PA.  There were 8 children including Emma–four boys and four girls: Sisters Ruth, Goldie and Pearl; and brothers, Herbert, Paul, John and George.  All have passed away.  Emma was the youngest: born in Canonsburg as Emma Cora Mohler, she changed her middle name early in life to that of her mother, Nora. Coincidentally, Harold, had also changed his given middle name from Edwin to Edward.  Memorial donations may be made to a charity of choice, or to the Lutheran Church, of which she was a member for many years.