 However, in letters to her friend Anne Palmer Fell, he opened up about his 12 years of happiness with Clover and his difficulty in dealing with her loss.She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the third and youngest child  of Robert William Hooper (1810 - April 15, 1885) and Ellen H. Sturgis (1812-November 3, 1848).Her siblings were Ellen Sturgis "Nella" Hooper (1838–1887), who married professor Ephraim Whitman Gurney (1829–1886); and Edward William "Ned" Hooper (1839–1901).