Daly, Elthea B. Cooper, 1867-1963

Elthea Belle Cooper was born in 1867 in Memphis, Tennessee. Her parents were from Galesburg, Illinois but had moved to Memphis after the Civil War, in which her father had served with distinction as a captain of artillery.

In 1887, in Leadville, Colorado, Cooper married Thomas Franklin Daly. They had three children: Clarence Joseph, associated with his father in the Insurance work as vice president of the Capitol Life Insurance Company; Imogene (Mrs. William S. Fisher, of Denver); and Nelly J.

After the only day care in Denver closed in 1906, a group of interested women reopened the nursery in a rented six room house at 2746 Lawrence Street. Elthea Daly organized the Social Center Day Nursery with the help of several other women. This early day care center responded to local needs and reflected national trends. Daly served as the center's first president. In 1910, they asked working mothers to pay five cents a day and opened a rummage shop to help defray expenses. Many Denver society matrons contributed clothing and other articles. Mrs. T.F. Patterson became the shop's proprietress, while debutantes, Miss Helen Bonfils, Miss Margery Reed, Miss Imogene Daly and many others, became the salesladies. On September 27, 1911, the nursery was incorporated as a non-profit, benevolent, educational institution under the name The Social Center and Day Nursery Association. The nursery closed in 1914 as the operaters became involved in war service. Mrs. Verner Z. (Mary D.) Reed funded the construction of the Margery Reed Mayo Day Nursery in 1926 as a memorial to her daughter, Margery Reed Mayo, who died in 1925.

Following the death of her husband in 1921, Daly became the owner of the Pearl Apartments whose name was changed sometime during her ownership to the Helene Apartment Building, renamed in honor of the Dalys' daughter, Helen.

Elthea Daly died in 1963.