John Allen Coffey

John Allen Coffey passed from this life at age 89 on Thursday, July 9, 2009. John was born in Pangburn, Arkansas, November 24, 1919. His parents, Robert Lee and Leona Allen Coffey, along with their 6 children were a part of the last covered wagon groups to leave Arkansas. They settled around Paul's Valley, Oklahoma in 1926. It was here that John met the beautiful, red-haired love of his life, Blanche Elizabeth McMahan. They married on June 22, 1940 - over 69 years ago. John and Blanche had 3 children, all born in Wynnewood Oklahoma: Bobby Lee Coffey (Mountain View, Arkansas); John Edgar Coffey (deceased, 2001) and Linda Kay (Coffey) Terrien, (New Braunfels, Texas). John joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) at the age of 17 and was sent to the state of Wyoming to fight forest fires and where he saw several young buddies lose their lives. He stayed in the area with the CCC after the fires to help build park roads and shelters. There he learned to cut ice blocks from the lakes where he learned to ice skate. The CCC gave him his initial boxing training. Following his stint in the CCC, John joined the US Army during WWII and was later transferred to the Army Air Corp (now known as the US Air Force). Following his honorable service to his country, John went back to his family in Oklahoma where he excelled at his life trade of machinist. In 1954 John moved his family to Houston, Texas. They spent the next 40 years there where he worked as a machinist with several companies; retiring from Nabisco Foods in 1982. John, never one to be idle, took up playing the guitar in his younger years and hand carving walking canes later in life. He and Blanche became Blue Grass Music aficionados and followed the festival circle around Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. Houston became too big for them, in 1994, John and Blanche moved north to Fairlie, Texas (a small community North of Commerce, Texas) there they met more wonderful friends and continued the happy days on the Blue Grass trail. John became quite the artiste with his wood carving and was well known around Texas for the uniqueness of his walking canes. John was always a great story teller, after his retirement he would entertain his friends and family with stories about his life experiences, with an occasional self composed song added for special effect.
John was preceded in death by his parents, 3 brothers, 2 sisters and his youngest son. He is survived by his wife, 2 children, 1 sister-in-law, 1 son-in-law, 2 daughter-in-laws, 1 grandson, 3 granddaughters and 6 great-grandsons. He was always Uncle Johnnie to his 11 nieces and 15 nephews. He will be lovingly remembered by his close friends and especially, his guitar-picking buddy, Chad Rainey.
A grave-side service with Military Honors will be held at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas on Monday, July 13, 2009 at 09:15 AM.
Friends and family are invited to John Coffey's Celebration of Life and Memorial to take place at the Summit Resort, 13105 River Road, Canyon Lake (Sattler), Texas, 78132 (PH: 830-708-3308) Monday, July 13th, from 11:30 A.M till 2:30 P.M.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in John's honor to Hope Hospice, 611 N. Walnut Ave., New Braunfels, Texas, 78130 (http://www.hopehospice.net/) or to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America (www.alzfdn.org/).