Thomas Arthur Cooper

Thomas Arthur Cooper, 44, of Madison, Wisconsin, died May 23, 2025, at his home. He was born in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in Rochelle, the son of Alan and Kathy Cooper and grandson of Hugh and Mary Cooper and Arthur and Virginia Kettleson.

Known to his close friends as Tommy, he moved to Madison at the age of 20 and lived there the remainder of his life. His was a difficult life in certain respects, as he was beset by the scourges of mental illness and addiction, which eventually ended his life much too early. He also encountered the prejudices and unpleasantness common to the life of an openly gay man, and the frustrations of dealing with an inadequate and underfunded mental health system.

And yet, he was widely and deeply loved by many for his positive and caring personality. He had a particular gift for befriending the elderly and those with mental or physical disabilities. He was also a close follower of world and national events and developments, and was known for intelligent and insightful observation and conversation. He was very worried about the present direction of our country.

Most of all, though, he was known for his love of things of beauty, particularly clothing and jewelry, and music, especially the music of Madonna and Ella Fitzgerald, which formed a sort of accompaniment for his life.

Near the end of Norman Maclean’s famous novella “A River Runs Through It”, a father and his older son are grieving the loss of a younger son, whose life was beset with wildness and danger and an immense talent for fly-fishing, before ending violently. After the older son has tried to sum up his younger brother’s life and death, finally concluding that “...all I really know is that he was a fine fisherman”, the father replies “You know more than that. He was beautiful”. Those words aptly describe Tommy.

He is survived by his parents, his grandmother Virginia Kettleson and his cousin Beth Cooper, all of Rochelle, as well as aunts, uncles and cousins from the Kettleson clan, located throughout the country, and by his “brother by another mother”, Leon Bradshaw, of Madison.

Private services will be held at a later time.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, donations in his memory may be made to the OutReach LGTBQ+ Community Center of Madison (https://www.outreachmadisonlgbt.org/), or Sinnissippi Centers (https://sinnissippi.org/).