Linda Kay Cooper was Jimmy Johnson’s first wife and the mother of his two sons. She watched him build his entire coaching career from the very beginning, from college assistant jobs through the University of Miami national championship, through the transformation of the Dallas Cowboys into a dynasty. Then she was gone from that story, replaced by a different narrative, and she built a completely separate life on her own terms.
She died on October 6, 2003, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at the age of 61. Her obituary describes her as a retired educator who taught in schools throughout the world. That detail tells you more about who she was than anything written about her connection to football.
Born in Marked Tree, Arkansas
Linda Kay Cooper was born on January 17, 1942, in Marked Tree, Arkansas, a small town in the northeast corner of the state, to Reginald Taft Cooper and Martha Virginia Dixon Cooper. She grew up with a sister named JoAnn Moody and a brother named Teddy Neal Cooper. Both parents predeceased her.
She attended the University of Arkansas, where she met a young man named Jimmy Johnson. A college friend later wrote in Linda’s guestbook that she had double-dated with them at the University of Arkansas, with Jimmy alongside Linda. They were sweethearts early on, and that connection led to marriage during the years when Jimmy was beginning his coaching career.
The Coaching Wife Years
Jimmy Johnson started coaching as a defensive line coach at Louisiana Tech in 1965. He then moved through positions at Wichita State, Iowa State, Oklahoma, and Pittsburgh before becoming head coach at Oklahoma State in 1979. From there, he took over as head coach at the University of Miami in 1984, where he won the national championship in 1987 with a 12-0 record, completing one of the most dominant college football runs of that era.
Throughout all of those moves, Linda was a coaching wife, constantly relocating, establishing new households, and raising their sons, Chad and Brent, in a series of cities and campuses. A friend who wrote in her guestbook captured it directly: she and Linda were young mothers and young coaches wives at the same time, building lives alongside their husbands’ careers.
That life demands a particular kind of resilience. Coaching families move frequently, sacrifice stability for ambition, and operate in communities where the coach is a public figure and the family remains largely invisible. Linda did all of this across decades and across multiple programs before Jimmy ever became a nationally known name.
The Cowboys, the Dynasty, and the Divorce
Jimmy Johnson succeeded Tom Landry as Dallas Cowboys head coach in 1989, hired by his old University of Arkansas teammate Jerry Jones the day Jones purchased the franchise. What followed became one of the most celebrated coaching runs in NFL history. Johnson rebuilt a 1-15 team into back-to-back Super Bowl champions in 1992 and 1993. He posted a 7-1 playoff record in Dallas. He coined the phrase “How ’bout them Cowboys.” He became one of the most recognized figures in American football.
Meanwhile, his marriage to Linda was ending. The divorce came around 1990, while Jimmy was still in his early Cowboys years. Linda did not speak publicly about it. No bitter interviews, no media appearances, no statements. A friend who remembered her from those years wrote afterward that Linda Kay was a wonderful friend, an excellent mother, and a supportive wife, and that she was a woman above reproach. Those words from someone who knew both of them as young coaching families carry real weight.
After the divorce, Jimmy eventually entered a relationship with Rhonda Rookmaaker, a hairdresser he had first met in Coral Gables in 1984. They married in 1999, twenty-five years after Jimmy had begun his coaching career.
What Linda Did After Football
Linda Kay Cooper did not define herself by what had ended. After the divorce, she built a new life entirely outside the sports world. According to her obituary, she became a retired educator who taught in schools throughout the world. One source mentions teaching at an American school in Venezuela. The phrase “throughout the world” in her official obituary suggests an extensive international career that extended well beyond a single posting.
She also remarried. At the time of her death, her husband was Roger Kent Aronson. Her son Brent lived in Redwood City, California. Her son Chad lived in Dallas, Texas. Her granddaughter, Lola Grace Johnson, lived with Brent in Redwood City. The guestbook note from Brent’s future in-laws described their shared love for baby Lola as the thing that connected two families across Linda’s final years.
Friends and neighbors in Fayetteville, where she had returned to live, described her as someone who went on daily walks and stopped to chat, who had a precious smile and a delightful laugh, who made everyone she met feel known. A neighbor wrote that they would miss seeing her walking and riding through the neighborhood. These are not observations about a woman defined by celebrity. They describe someone who had built a genuine local community wherever she settled.
The Teaching Identity
The most underreported detail in every piece written about Linda Kay Cooper is that she spent decades as an educator. The obituary is clear on this. She was not a former football spouse who dabbled in volunteering. She was a retired educator, and the scope of her teaching career crossed international borders.
The mental discipline required to teach effectively across different countries and cultures, adapting to new classrooms, new student populations, and new educational environments, is substantial. Linda built that kind of career after her marriage to Jimmy ended. She did not wait for the sports world to define her next chapter. She created it herself, in classrooms far from any NFL stadium.
That career is her actual legacy. Chad and Brent Johnson grew up to have successful careers. Brent’s daughter Lola Grace was the new generation Linda poured love into before she died. The teaching career, the international experience, the community she built back in Arkansas, these are the things her friends described when they sat down to write about her.
What People Said
The guestbook tributes are the closest thing to a portrait of Linda Kay Cooper from people who actually knew her. They are consistent and specific. “Dearest, sweetest, and enthusiastic.” “Always such a delight to be around.” “Her precious smile.” “A keen sense of adventure and was not afraid to strike out on her own for some strange port.” “A woman above reproach.” “One of the most interesting people I ever met.”
These are not generic condolences. They describe someone vibrant, curious, and memorable. The mention of striking out for strange ports aligns with the international teaching career. The sense of adventure shows up in multiple tributes. None of them mention football.
Linda Kay Cooper died at 61, which is young. She had a granddaughter she had barely met. She had rebuilt her life twice, first as a coaching spouse across multiple programs and cities, then as an international educator and Fayetteville community member after the divorce. She remarried a man named Roger Kent Aronson and made a new home.
Jimmy Johnson went on to become a Hall of Fame coach and a long-running Fox NFL Sunday analyst. Linda Kay Cooper went on to teach children across the world. Both of those outcomes are worth knowing.
