Elizabeth K. Coffman
Elizabeth Kelley Coffman, 84, formerly of Springfield, Virginia, died peacefully Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017, of dementia.
Betty Coffman was born Oct. 24, 1933, in Charles Town. She was the third of four children born to Stanley L. and Jessie E. Furr Kelley. She grew up in Charles Town.
She was a member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Virginia.
Betty Coffman loved movies and musicals her entire life. She was a Thespian at Charles Town High School, where she had speaking and singing roles in several productions. She graduated in 1951.
She studied nursing at Washington County Hospital School of Nursing in Hagerstown, Maryland, graduating as a registered nurse in 1953. She worked at what was then Newton D. Baker Veterans Administration Hospital in Martinsburg, until she married Harry Flood Coffman of Leetown, on Nov. 9, 1957. She became a stay-at-home wife and mother, but she remained a nurse at heart the rest of her life. Even as dementia robbed her of so many memories, she told hospice workers she had been an RN.
Betty often served as room mother at her daughters’ elementary schools, chaperoned countless field trips, and was an active choir mom at Trinity United Methodist Church. Later, after her daughters were grown, she participated in Trinity’s chapter of the United Methodist Women, eventually serving as the group’s president. She was also wedding coordinator at Trinity, which she loved doing.
She was an outstanding seamstress who made professional-quality clothes, window treatments, Halloween costumes for her daughters, costumes for church events, and her younger daughter’s wedding dress and veil. She and her history-loving husband had a deal: for every battlefield they visited, she got to go to a fabric store. Each claim the other got the better end of the deal.
Betty was also an incredible card and Scrabble player, who usually trounced her husband and daughters. She did the Washington Post crossword puzzles every day for years, wearing out two dictionaries in the process. She enjoyed cooking, reading, cheering for the Washington Redskins, and spending time with her grandsons. She loved living on St. Croix, where her husband was temporarily posted, in 1963 and 1965, and traveling throughout the United States with her family.
She is survived by her daughter, Suzanne Coffman of Williamsburg, Virginia; daughter, Kelly L. Hargreaves, son-in-law, Stephen Hargreaves, and grandsons, Alec and Ian Hargreaves, of Centreville, Virginia; brother, Stanley L. Kelley and Barbara of Bluemont, Virginia; sister, Louise South of Charles Town; and brother, R. Manning Kelley and Bonnie of Shepherdstown.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Harry Flood Coffman; and her parents, Stanley and Jessie Kelley.
Services were held 2:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 6, 2017, at Eackles-Spencer & Norton Funeral Home, 256 Halltown Road, Harpers Ferry, with the Rev. Dwayne Jensen officiating. Interment was in Edge Hill Cemetery in Charles Town.
The family will receive friends at the funeral home one hour prior to the service on Monday.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Fund for the Virgin Islands/Hurricane Irma Relief and Recovery, Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, P.O. Box 11790, St Thomas, USVI 00801. Those wishing to give online can do so by going to cfvi.net/donate/ hurricanerelief.php and clicking “Click to Donate”.
Condolences may be expressed at www.eackles-spencerfuneralhome.com.