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When Cyrene was a very young girl, her parents separated and then divorced. She and her siblings were divided among relatives, and she and her sister Emily went to live with their maternal grandparents, Reese and Delilah Mayle, near Grafton, Taylor County, WV. The girls are shown in the Mayle household in the 1880 census, when Emily was age nine, and Cyrene age four. Cyrene married farmer Elwood Cooper (1871-1962), a native of Deer Park, and the son of Jack and Nancy (Kisner) Cooper. Their wedding took place on Dec. 22, 1892 at the home of "John E. Male" -- most likely the residence of Cyrene's sister and brother in law Rachel and John "Ellsworth" Mayle. Cyrene was age 16 at the time, and Elwood was 21, with a five-year difference in their ages. The Coopers had no children during their 46 years of marriage.
In September 1903, the Coopers received a letter from Ross C. Male of Cecil, WV, with family news, including word that Cyrene's grandfather (Reese Mayle) and step-grandmother (Rose [Knave] Mayle) had died within a few days of each other. The letter read: "Grandpa and Rosa are both dead, Rosa died last Friday at 2 o'clock, and Grandpa died today [Aug. 31] about 2 o'clock." Cyrene sent a penny postcard to her brother Dewitt Minard on March 1, 1937 that has survived to today, and can be seen at left. In that era of time, when some families still did not have telephones in their home, postcards served as a quick and inexpensive way to communicate with relatives and friends living nearby. In faded pencil, she wrote: Dearest brother and sister I want you both to come up soon as you get this card. Something struck me a bout my hips this morning and I got rite down in the floor and coulden't get up. Elwood had to help me up. It still is thretening me yet. Please come from your sister Cyrena. She died in the Keyser home in 1938, at the age of 62. The specifics are not yet known, nor is her final resting place. Elwood survived his wife by 24 years, almost a quarter of a century. He maintained his home in Route 2 in Deer Park. Several days before Christmas 1962, he was admitted to Garrett County Memorial Hospital with what was to be his final illness. He died there, on Dec. 26, 1962, at the age of 91. His funeral arrangements were handled by the Minnich Funeral Home in Oakland, Garrett County, followed by a funeral led by Rev. Lawrence Sherwood of St. Paul's Methodist Church of Oakland. Elwood's remains were laid to rest in Paradise Church Cemetery near Sand Flat, Garrett County. A newspaper obituary said he "was the last surviving member of his family."
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