Relationship With General MacArthur
Cooper met American General Douglas MacArthur, then commander of all U.S. troops in the Philippines, in 1930, five months before he returned to the United States. She subsequently became his mistress in Manila, a fact the fifty-plus MacArthur hid from his 80 year-old mother.
She eventually ended up ensconced in an apartment in Washington, D.C. when General MacArthur was appointed Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army and was transferred there, a situation which did not best suit Cooper's lively personality. According to one biographer of MacArthur, William Manchester, MacArthur "showered with presents and bought her many lacy tea gowns, but no raincoat. She didn't need one, he told her; her duty lay in bed."
When the secret affair threatened to become public, MacArthur brought it to an end and gave Cooper a ticket back to the Philippines which she did not use; she never returned to the Philippines. Instead Cooper moved to the Midwest, where she owned a hairdressing salon, before moving to Los Angeles some years later.
Read more about this topic: Elizabeth Cooper
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