Jean Loomes (born 1918) married Alan Roper (1916-1992)(a non-Catholic) in 1942, at St Mary's church in Thornbury, Melbourne. Alan Scott was the best man and Peg Loomes was bridesmaid.

Jean's father, Jim Loomes, was too ill to attend (he died in 1944). William Roper, Alan's father, ‘gave Jean away’ and welcomed her into the family at the same time. The ceremony was attended by Maisie, Kath Loomes, Verlie (Barn Loomes' wife), Peggie Hobson, and William and Faith Roper.

Alan was on leave from training as a Lieutenant officer and commando in Queensland, and had to return, three days after his wedding, to Sydney, then the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland, and then on to New Guinea. Jean returned to Wentworth and Alan visited her when on leave. Patricia Robin Roper was born in Wentworth in 1943.

Jean recalls that Alan's mother rarely had visitors to their home. Jean’s parents (Maisie and Jim Loomes) never appeared to never argue, but Alan's parents, says Jean, were always clashing. Alan’s mother was adopted by a Jewish family, his father was a superintendent on the Railways at Ballarat. Alan had a sister, who married but had no children and who lived in Ballarat.

Alan was sent to Wewak, New Guinea, where he was shot in the arm, shattering a bone.
There he was wounded in the arm by a sniper while serving with the 2nd Tenth Australian Commando squadron. He was defending Milak, Papua New Guinea, in the Torricelli Mountain campaign… Of the sixteen men in section 6, only one other… was to survive without being killed or seriously injured. Alan remained in PNG until 1945.
Timelines of Wentworth shire (Peter Thomson 2007) p.81.

Alan spent some time in hospital back in Melbourne, and then returned to the bank at Ballarat, living with Jean, for 12 months, where Kerry Lalene Roper was born in 1945. Jim Loomes died of Tuberculosis at the age of 47 in 1954. Tuberculosis (also called TB, or ‘consumption’) is an infectious disease that had been known for thousands of years, possibly originating from cattle. It affects the lungs, and was only eradicated after the 1950s by the use of antibiotics.

Then they moved to Corowa in NSW. The family returned to live at Tara with Maisie Loomes until 1954, when they moved into a house provided by the bank at Dareton.

Alan left the bank and became the first manager of the Coomealla Memorial Club. Maisie, crippled with arthritis, was looked after by her daughters, Jean and Peg Sheean in turns. The two youngest Roper children, Richard Alan (1951) and Jane Marie Roper (1958) were born in Wentworth.
For more details about Jean and Alan's descendants, see the Loomes family tree.

When Barn Loomes died in 1954, Fon and Bern took over Tara. They in turn, handed over the responsibility for Tara to Alan and Jean Roper. Tara never recovered from the effects of the 1956 floods. The property was rented out to Betty and Tony Blair and later to the McKenzies, until the house was then condemned by the council and became vacant for many years.

Alan died in 1992 at the age of 75, from diabetes and a heart condition, and Jean moved to Mildura, where she lives with her daughter Jane.