To His Folks, He Was Just Plain Billy; Everyone Else Called Him Rooster

He was Billy Joe Cooper, 7 years old with red hair. born in Abilene, Texas a few years after his parents married there in 1926. Billy Joe lived on Pecan Street in Abilene with his parents, Louie V. and Delila “Lila” Cooper, and he attended Abilene schools. He began his formal schooling at Locust Elementary School, on Locust Street in 1938.

He liked school, but really enjoyed hanging out around Thornton’s Feed Store.  At the corner of South 5th and Pecan Streets, just a few blocks north of Locust School. Several men and most of the boys liked hanging around the store too. Just the product promotion, coupled with the occasional free soft drinks was enough to keep most of the guys coming back, especially on Saturday mornings.

You never knew what Elt Lee Thornton, known to everyone as E.L. and owner of the store, might think up next for advertising and overall promotion.  E.L. not only owned the feed store, he owned the entire city block, which housed his Department Store and Grocery Store, which E.L. had dubbed “A City Within Itself.”

E.L. had started his “retail empire” in 1919 when he moved from Arkansas to Abilene and opened a fruit stand.  According one Abilene old timer, it was not long before Mr. Thornton realized he could make more money selling illicit liquor to the thirsty Baptist and Methodist citizens of “dry” Abilene than he could by selling fruit.

His stand was fueled by the high profit sales of fermented fruit and distilled grain products, delivered under the produce counter.  The extra cash margins soon enabled E.L. to built his first permanent structure for his new first grocery store.  He just kept building and adding on, for the next four and a half decades until his death in 1964.

Unfortunately for Thornton, one of his building projects included a major reconstruction, after the great fire of 1959.  The fire damaged or destroyed a large part of the business enterprise that Thornton had created.

In 1929, Thornton and his two brothers, who had joined him, added a drug store and a feed store to the grocery business.  This was in the midst of prohibition and because of political pressure, the liquor trade was moved into the drugstore and became “prescription only.”

As his legitimate businesses flourished, E.L. was soon able to distance himself from the illegal liquor trade.  This was a good career move as Thornton’s reputation was never tarnished by it.

As new business sectors were added and grew, the Feed Store became less important to the overall business.  However, E.L. never tried to narrow his business scope.  Instead, he felt each activity  complimented the other and he continued this practice, until his last days, promoting in so many ways, all of his businesses.

E.L. was very found of country music and bands.  He discovered this hobby to be an excellent way to increase customer traffic and promote the Feed Store business.  He invited bands into his Feed store to play and to broadcast, on radio, the news.

The customers loved the entertainment and seeing the radio shows first hand, and they crowded into the Store amongst the feed, seed, and live chicks to see and to hear the band.  Billy Joe was also attracted to the band and the activities of the radio show, and to this seven-year-old becoming a part of it would be fascinating beyond his wildest dreams.

In addition to the little chicks, the feed store also contained a live poultry department.  This E.L. kept stocked with poultry purchased from his farm customers for resale.  Due to its proximity, it was not unusual for one of the roosters to impinge on the radio program, by chiming in with enthusiastic crowing just as the band was laying down some hot licks.

This introduced an sudden element of disharmony into the band’s music which annoyed the band members.  Yet some radio show fans found it highly amusing and tuned into the show especially to hear the unscheduled addition to the entertainment.

Billy Joe also found the chickens very amusing.  Soon he decided he could do a better job than some amateur red rooster.  His contributions could be scheduled for that perfect interval.  He began practicing, away from the feed store, often in a secluded corner of the large Locust School yard, until his act was perfected.

Billy Joe and Thornton’s Band

Soon he felt that perfect pitch and tone coming from the depths of his young throat. The next Saturday morning, Billy gave an uninvited and unscheduled audition.  The Band members laughed; the crowd, in the feed store, cheered and encouraged him.  Someone from the crowd called out to him “Rooster”, and the Band chimed repeating, Rooster.  E.L. himself is said to have uttered his famous phrase “Mighty fine! Mighty fine!” with glee.

Soon the little red-haired boy was no longer Billy Joe Cooper.  He was simply “Rooster” with the band that played over radio station KRBC. He accompanied the band wherever they went and crowed on their program. This was great advertising for Thornton’s Department Store. It was great fun for Rooster and the radio station paid him too.

Rooster’s reward was multiplied further when Thornton added the incentive of giving him clothes right from the Boy’s Dept. of his big store.  Rooster had fun; loved his new clothes and the excitement of going to many places and performing with the band.

But life goes on, all things must change or end.  Rooster became just Billy Joe again.  He went on to several other activities and jobs in Abilene.  He became a lifeguard at the American Legion Swimming pool on South 11th Street, where he became adept at high diving. He boxed in the Golden Gloves tournaments, and was a caddy at the Abilene Country Club.

He got a further education, became a consulting professional engineer, and he and his wife Linda started Cooper Engineering and Associates, Inc. in 1976 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  Rooster died there on 2 Sep 1991 of cancer and many of his rural neighbors swear that the nearby cocks did not crow on the next dawn.