David (Buster) Nathan Cope, Jr.

David Nathan Cope, Jr. was born on a farm north of Mullinville, Kiowa County, Kansas, October 18, 1912. He left us from the Long Term Care Center of Springfield, Colorado, July 23, 2009, just shy of his 97th birthday by two months and 25 days. Very early he acquired the name of Buster, which has stayed with him all of life. Only his 5th grade teacher asked about him as David as long as she lived. Buster attended a rural, one-teacher school in Kiowa County through 8th grade and started high school in Mullinville, living with an older brother. One week was all he wanted of that, and when week two came, he just didn’t go back. From then on he took a big part of the responsibility for the work of the family farm. At the age of 16 Buster moved with his family to a farm 6 miles southeast of Vilas, Baca County, Colorado. A short time during the Great Depression he worked on a farm near Wrangely in the mountains. Other than that he spent his life on the family farm until he moved to Springfield in the early 1990’s. Besides working on the farm he worked for other farmers in the area. He helped care for his grandfather and his parents. His grandfather and father lived all their lives on the farm. His mother lived her last year in a nursing home but he made sure she had good care. He also cared for neighbors as they became elderly. For many years there was seldom a funeral at which he was not a pallbearer. Shortly after his mother’s death his younger sister, Pearl, lost her husband and “moved back home”. When she became ill, he furnished her care. Another important part of his life was offering care and encouragement to two nephews, Charles Cope and Wayne Warner. Another nephew, Darrell Rutherford, remembers that his first earned dollar was in helping Uncle Buster. Buster was a good farmer but his main interest was his Hereford cattle. His small herd furnished many 4-H calves for Baca County boys. A serious digestive illness brought an end to his farm life. A neighbor who owned a truck said the one of the hardest things he ever had to do was to help Buster load his Hereford cattle when he had to sell the last of them. After selling his cattle and renting out his farmland, Buster bought a house in Springfield, where he lived until he was no longer able to live alone. After an illness, which put him in the hospital for a month, he moved into the Springfield Long Term Care Center in December 2007. Buster was preceded in death by his parents, David and Nellie, his brothers, Jay and Albert, his sisters, Pearl Kirk and May Miller, niece, Hazel Rowlison, nephews, George and Victor Miller and Wayne Warner. Survivors include his sister, Opal Rutherford, and her children, Leatha, Farrell, Darrell, Ron, Wesley and James; his nieces, Barbara Medlock and Debbie Davee and his nephews, Charles Cope and James Hague.