SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Louise Hopkins, 98, of Santa Monica, Calif., and a former longtime Southeast Kansas resident, died at 9:20 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, at her home.

She was born June 5, 1913, in Chanute to John W. and Carrie (Buckner) Jordan. She moved with her family to a farm northeast of St. Paul in 1918. She attended the Lone Elm rural school, St. Paul Public School and St. Francis High School, graduating in 1931.

In 1932 she married Charles A. Hopkins. The couple separated early in their marriage and in 1935 she began employment with Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. as agency operator in Elgin. The next year she was transferred to the Coffeyville office and later to the business office as a service representative, a position she held until retirement in 1978 with more than 42 years of service.

She was a member of the First United Methodist Methodist Church of Coffeyville, the United Methodist Women, the Telephone Pioneers and the Repaso Moderno Book Club.

She and her sister, Marie Jordan, made their home in Coffeyville until Marie’s death in 1998. At that time she moved to Santa Monica to be with her daughter and son-in-law.

Survivors include a daughter, Charlene (Hopkins) Earnest and her husband, Robert, of Santa Monica, Calif.; and two nieces, Karen (Hopkins) Steinbacher of St. Paul and Janet (Hopkins) Moore of Edwardsville.

She was also preceded in death by her parents; and a brother, William H. (Brown) Jordan.

The service will be at 2 p.m. Friday at Carson-Wall Funeral Home in St. Paul. She will be buried by her parents and sister in Hope Cemetery at St. Paul. Friends may call at the funeral home after 9 a.m. Friday.