Oak trees dedicated to culture workers of the region: to Larisa Kopaitė, the first Head of Tauragė Public Library

According to the idea of ​​the employees of the Culture Center, an Oak Alley is being created near the building of Tauragė Palace of Culture (3 Darius ir Girėno St.), dedicated to the cultural “oaks” of Tauragė region. In 2011, a tree was planted in this alley in memory of Larisa Kopaitė – the first Head of Tauragė Public Library.

L.Kopaitė (her last name was spelled differently in the documents: Kopp, Koppaitė, Kopaitė) was born in 1899, in the village of Sartininkai, Tauragė district, in the family of a municipal employee. She studied at the Empress Marija Feodorovna school for Noble Girls in Kaunas and at the 5th Women’s Gymnasium in Moscow. In 1918, after returning to Lithuania, she taught at Tauragė district schools and worked in the Department of Education. In 1924, she began studying at the department of mathematics and physics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Lithuania (later Vytautas the Great). She wrote and defended two diploma theses: in 1928 – in physics and in 1930 – in mathematics. It is believed that in interwar Lithuania, L. Kopaitė was the first woman with two higher education diplomas. After graduating, she did not get a desired job as a teacher.

On June 15, 1931, after the establishment of the branch of the State Central Bookstore in Tauragė, L. Kopaitė was appointed  as its manager. Although she was not a specialist, she knew the specifics of library work, was lettered, and diligent. In addition to Lithuanian, she knew Russian, German and French. Readers of the library remembered the manager as a woman of high culture, who loved books and was strict with those who did not respect them. L. Kopaitė worked in the library until her death – in 1952. She was buried in the Old Tauragė cemetery, near the church.