William Prentice Cooper Jr. was an American politician and diplomat who served as the 39th governor of Tennessee from 1939 to 1945. He led the state's mobilization efforts for World War II, when over 300,000 Tennesseans joined the armed forces, and numerous defense-related facilities were established across the state. He later served as United States Ambassador to Peru (1946–1948) and chaired Tennessee's 1953 constitutional convention.

Shelbyville is a city in and the county seat of Bedford County, Tennessee. The town was laid out in 1810 and incorporated in 1819. Shelbyville had a population of 20,335 residents at the 2010 census. The town is a hub of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry and has been nicknamed "The Walking Horse Capital of the World".