Deputy Editor Laura Emery recounts her 26 years of giving voice to co-op stories
October 2026
Laura Emery
by Laura Emery, Staff Writer
As Cooperative Living celebrates 80 years, I find myself reflecting on the 26 years I have been privileged to be part of this magazine’s remarkable legacy.
My introduction to electric cooperatives came in 1995, when I attended the Virginia Cooperative Council’s Virginia Institute on Cooperative Education and then the National Institute on Cooperative Education.
An essay contest I never expected to win, invitations to speak at several cooperative events and, eventually, a blind response to a classified ad seeking a writer for a “trade publication” led me rather unexpectedly to Cooperative Living.
What followed was a career more fulfilling than I could ever have imagined, one that gave me a front-row seat to the people and places that make cooperative communities special.
I’ve traveled winding roads through nearly every corner of Virginia, discovering places I might otherwise never have encountered. I’ve spent early mornings on the Chesapeake Bay alongside hardworking watermen, toured Tangier Island by golf cart with its mayor and followed lineworkers across rugged terrain as they restored power after storms. I’ve ridden in combines during harvest season with farmers whose livelihoods are inextricably tied to the land. I’ve toured power plants, standing amid massive equipment and complex systems that help keep the lights on across co-op communities.
The stories have taken me from soup kitchens to NASA rocket launches. I’ve watched the weathered hands of skilled artisans coax something beautiful from wood, metal, yarn, paper and other raw materials, and I’ve sat with political leaders in Washington, D.C. Yet for all the places this career has taken me, it is the people and the smallest details about them that I remember most.
The past 26 years of memories come rushing back, like a montage of faces, voices, places and moments. I remember meeting U.S. Sen. John Warner and being mesmerized by his charisma and magnetic, larger-than-life presence. And there was the time I spent the afternoon with actor Tim Reid, whom I knew from watching “Sister, Sister.” I remember marveling at how surreal it felt to be sitting with him.
Just as vividly, I can recall 105-year-old Eley Demiel of Suffolk, Va., sitting in her wheelchair, afternoon sunlight falling across her face and neatly braided silver hair as she reflected on a life that touched three centuries.
I’ll also never forget Matilda “Tillie” Marshall of Onley, Va., a spry 97-year-old with bright blue eyes, freshly painted pink fingernails and a tiny bow tucked into her gray curls. Barely 4 feet tall, she possessed a wit, faith and exuberance for life that seemed to defy the passage of time.
I remember Frank Harris of Ford, Va., who spent 33 years serving Southside Electric Cooperative. His positive energy was palpable, but behind his buoyant spirit was a man who had endured tremendous personal loss and, through his faith in God, chose joy.
They are just a few of the remarkable people who transformed my career into something far richer. Countless others have welcomed me into their lives and trusted me to share their stories — both extraordinary and ordinary — in the pages of Cooperative Living. In doing so, they left pieces of themselves with me, too.
It’s hard to imagine what I thought my career would look like when I first began writing for the magazine, but all these years later, I am proud to continue to call Cooperative Living — and the cooperative community it represents — my life’s passion.
Laura Emery joined Cooperative Living as field editor in 2000, later becoming associate editor and then deputy editor. For 26 years, she has helped tell the stories of people, places and communities served by electric cooperatives.