Paula Sanders Cooper Steel was called to her eternal home on Sunday, May 18, 2025.  Paula, who had recently turned 88 years old at the time of her death, passed quietly and peacefully among family in Little Rock.  She was born on May 7, 1937, to Omer and Ethel Sanders of Danville.

Paula was raised in Danville, Arkansas. After graduating from Danville High School, she attended Arkansas Tech University.  While at ATU she met, dated, and ultimately married fellow student Ray Cooper.  She and Ray began their married life in Little Rock.

While plenty busy raising two small children as a stay-at-home mom, Paula allowed herself to be bitten by a bug that would impact her for the rest of her days. The bug was art.  Painting, to be more specific.

She started by taking art classes at UALR, as well as the Arkansas Art Center.  She was a sponge for anything and everything related to art and painting, and there would be no turning back.  With a few classes under her belt, she started painting at home, on her own.  Her happy art journey had begun.

Paula's second marriage took her to Lawton, Oklahoma.  She wasted no time in immersing herself in the local art community, and became an active and very visible member of the Lawton/Fort Sill Art Council.  Upon the death of her second husband, Paula decided to go back to college and study art.  She received her Bachelor of Arts in Art in 1988 from Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma.

With her art degree in hand, Paula decided to take on the metropolis known as Dallas, Texas.  She was hired by the JCPenney Home Office as a designer in Sales and Advertising.  While in Dallas, she was an active member of the Richardson Civic Art Society, and she got to know many wonderful and talented artists during her years in Dallas.

When Paula retired in 2002, she decided to move back to Danville and reside in the family home that had been custom built by her parents in the 1960s.  Paula wanted to host art workshops, so she immediately set about remodeling the family home in a way that would better accommodate groups of artists who would be staying at the family home for the workshops. She named the remodeled home Running Deer Retreat.

Teaching artists traveled to Running Deer Retreat from California, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.  Attending artists came to Running Deer Retreat from Arkansas and many other states. Paula was an active member of the Arkansas League of Artists and the River Valley Art Center since 2002 when she moved back to Arkansas.

Paula's post-retirement art journey did not consist solely of Running Deer Retreat,  She also traveled extensively across the country for various art workshops, where she studied under many well-known artists. Her quest to keep learning from other, well-known artists inspired her to attend art workshops in France and Italy.  She often said that the most memorable part of her trips abroad was  seeing with her own eyes the very studios where Monet and Cezanne created their masterpieces.

Paula worked in oil, pastel, and watercolor, and her talent was evident no matter which medium she was in at the time.  She loved to paint landscapes and still lifes, and excelled in both.  For the past several years, Paula cut back on hosting art workshops, which enabled her to spend more time at Gallery 307 in Russellville, where she became fast friends with Rita Goodman and other very talented and gifted artists.

Paula's true love -- her inspiration and in many ways her core purpose -- was art.  She truly observed the world around her through the eyes of a painter.  Where non-painters were observing a simple sunset, Paula was seeing a vibrant mixture of Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre, Alizarin Crimson, and Titanium White.  Where most people might simply see the crest of a distant mountain, Paula would, in her mind, be mixing Ultramarine Violet, Terre Verte, and smidge of Cobalt Blue in order to get just the right hue of a faint purple.  It has been said by artists for generations that "color is a power which directly influences the soul." For Paula, it was indeed a power.  And it indeed influenced her soul.  And those who knew her are blessed to have witnessed it.
Paula was preceded in death by her husband. Bob Steel.
Paula is survived by her two children, Jeananne & Michael Hawking of Little Rock, and Tom Cooper of Oklahoma City, brother, Todd & Shirley Sanders of Danville, three grandchildren, Samantha Hawking, Adam Cooper, and Cassidy Cooper, and a host of family and friends.

The memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, at the First Baptist Church in Danville, Arkansas.  Preceding the memorial service there will be an opportunity for visitation in the church sanctuary, beginning at 1:30 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the ATU Foundation in support of the Art Department. Checks should be made payable to "ATU Foundation" with "Art Department"/Paula Steel memorial  noted in the memo line, and mailed to:

ATU Foundation

PO Box 1105

Russellville, AR 72811

Donations can also be made online at www.atualumni.com

Arrangements by Cornwell Funeral Home Danville and River Valley Crematory Dardanelle