Wife of Overnite Transportation Founder J. Harwood Cochrane Dies at 99

Louise Odell Blanks Cochrane, wife of Overnite Transportation Co. and Highway Express founder J. Harwood Cochrane, died Dec. 10 in Richmond, Virginia, at the age of 99.

Louise and Harwood Cochrane had been married 81 years, which Wikipedia had cited as the 10th-longest surviving marriage in the world. Harwood Cochrane is 103. They were married March 31, 1934.

The Virginia Trucking Association said Louise Cochrane had been a faithful member of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Richmond since 1934. VTA said she was an active member in various organizations, including the Tuckahoe Woman's Club, The Woman's Club, Rockville Woman's Club, Richmond Artists Association, Rappahannock Art League and a founding member of the Tuckahoe Artists Association. She was a painter, seamstress, needlewoman and rosarian.

VTA said as her Jan. 30, 2016, centennial birthday approached, she had been preparing an art show for The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Louise Cochrane was the mother of four children, according to Legacy.com: Judith Carr Cochrane Gilman-Hines, Suzanne Hope Cochrane Austell Martin (deceased), Treena Louise Cochrane (died in infancy) and James Harwood Cochrane, Jr. She also had eight grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Cochranes were generous benefactors to cultural institutions such as the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and Virginia Opera.

Harwood Cochrane was called "probably the greatest LTL trucker of us all," by Earl Congdon, chairman of Old Dominion Freight Line, in this September 2010 Transport Topics feature. "I used Overnite as a pattern for Old Dominion. We tried to do the same thing, but we were 15 to 20 years behind him.”