Jena Cooper:
CLASS OF 1993
John F. Hodge High SchoolClass of 1993
St. james, MO
Jena's Story
Not that this will come as a surprise to most people who have known me, but my path has been somewhat unconventional. In my first job, I was a singer and a magician's assistant in a small country music show. It was a trial by fire-you learn a lot about performing when you're in a live show. I also learned to swear while I was there. (Thank you Cherie Simpson.)
After that I worked in an office and as a nanny, and also spent some time doing beauty pageants. I had a good experience with that, and volunteered with a lot of Special Olympics functions as a queen.
About '97 I got married and had my daughter Alexis. By '99 I was separated, and divorced thereafter. I made the mistake so many women do, and married outside my species-he was a jackass. C'est la vie.
I spent about 5 years in Springfield, working office jobs and being active in community theatre. I mainly acted, but I occasionally did things I got paid for-like costume design (thank you Kathleen James) and stage managing.
In the summer before I moved to KC, I worked one season at Silver Dollar City in the Meet the Nicktoons show. If you brought your kids to that, I was probably in the Spongebob costume or the Angelica costume. And if you're one of the parents who let your kids kick us in the knee and thought it was cute, screw you. It wasn't. I spent that summer bringing joy to thousands of kids and all I got was my ass kicked. Kids are mean.
When I moved to KC, I did quite a bit of work as a professional actress. Got an agent and everything-woo hoo! I mainly did commercials and voiceover on the pro side-had a couple of ads go national. Bought my car with those-it's nice work if you can get it.
Now I live in St. Louis. I worked for a little while here as a flight attendant and really enjoyed it, but I was gone all the time. Lex stayed in St. James and I saw her on my off time, but it got pretty hard on both of us. I'm still licensed as a flight attendant but I'm not currently flying. At the moment, I'm in the Prop...Expand for more
erty Management field, which I'm enjoying. When Lexie finishes this school year, she's coming up here with me, and we're both excited about that.
Another thing I did since high school was reconnect with my birthparents. I met them both, and they're really great people. My birthfather, oddly enough, lived in Cuba MO my whole life. My adoptive father was his UPS man, and my stepmother was in his brother's wedding-she'd known the family forever. My birthmother lived in Springfield. They still get along with each other, and my adoptive parents also get along with my birthparents. Things couldn't have worked out better in that respect-I'm very blessed. And so is Lexie-four sets of grandparents on my side alone.
I have two brothers from my birthfather-Justin and Brian. Justin has Down's Syndrome. Most people who would be reading this know I grew up with a brother who was handicapped-Jared. Knowing him certainly prepared the way for knowing Justin. Sometimes God smiles on us. They're great-I love them a lot.
Jessica and Jayson also have one child apiece, like I do, and like me, they also have girls. I'm not sure how that happened, but we enjoy all of our pretty baby girls. :)
As far as religion, that's something that's changed for me since high school. I'm a Quaker now-it's much less judgmental and more introspective than mainstream Christianity, and it works for me.
I've got a fantastic boyfriend. He's a former police officer who is most likely going to be back in blue before long. He's very sweet, and pretty hot too. I met him on Craigslist-I had a good run with them. Found two apartments, an antique bed, and a man all on Craigslist. I'm a fan.
My goals for the not so distant future include doing some professional acting here-hopefully on the stage side-and going to UMSL and getting my degree in Criminology. I'm also hoping to do some professional writing-we'll see how that goes. I've done a lot of living in the past 15 years-I'm planning on doing a lot more.
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