Udene and John Berry (J. B.) Cooper have been named the 2008 Round-up Grand Marshals.

"I was a little apprehensive. Would they be mad, happy, sad?" Kim Cooper said. "I felt if anyone was deserving it was them."

The announcement came as a surprise to Udene and J.B. Cooper, but they felt honored.

As a couple, they have carried over their work ethic that their parents taught in their own home. Udene Cooper maintained the house and nurtured the children while J.B. Cooper worked at the Lehi General Refractory Plant for 45 years.

Much of that time with his wife's support, he contributed significantly to the Lehi community. One of those contributions was the Lehi Recreation Program.

"There were programs that would never been started in Lehi, if it weren't for J.B., Blackie Harris, Chub (Keith) Larsen and N. S. Peck," Udene Cooper said. "They used their own money, their time, because they felt like the kids needed this recreation."

He said he remembers starting the baseball program when they didn't have shoes, hats. They couldn't afford real uniforms so they got some wool ones. The kids, there were only five or six teams at the time, felt like they were pros, he said.

He and his friends also started a basketball and football program for Lehi children. Today's recreation programs are a pantheon of what they were able to offer in the small town 40 years ago.

"They have so many things going on there right now," Cooper said. "Bless their hearts, they just have den of activities at the recreation center now."

"And it all started way back when our kids didn't have anything," Udene Cooper said.

Her husband was a City Councilman for 12 years in the 50s and 60s and a Utah State Representative for the Lehi and American Fork area.

He was asked to fill Representative Dean Pryor's office when he died and was voted in for two more terms afterwards.

"It was a good time to serve both in the council and in the state legislature," J.B. Cooper said. "As far as the council was concerned, we were broke. We didn't have anything. We were lucky to pay our bills.

"At that time American Fork was getting more in sales tax than Pleasant Grove and Lehi were getting in property tax combined."

He said that has completely changed in the last 10-15 years.

Cooper was also asked to be over the LDS Church athletic program in Lehi. He asked Keith Larson to be his assistant.

"Keith Larsen said to me one time 'How in the world is it you and I get these nonpaying jobs?'" Cooper said. "He always referred to them as blessings, 'How do we have all these blessings?'"