Samuel DeAlma Coffee

Samuel D. Coffee Long Resident Here, Dies

Funeral services for Samuel DeAlma Coffee were held Saturday, March 9, at the Church of the Blessed Nativity in Harrison, conducted by the Rev. Father John Dennett. Interment was made at the Catholic Cemetery in Harrison. Mr. Coffee died March 7 in the Chadron Hospital at the age of 85 after a brief illness. Pallbearers were Vernon Coffee, Laurance Bannan, John Engelbretsen, Lawrence Lewis, Ernest Arner, and Robert Bannan.

Mr. Coffee was born in Georgetown, Texas, on November 9, 1882, to William T. and Beatrice Webb Coffee. In 1901, at the age of 18, he and his father moved from Mandeville, La., to the Running Water ranch south of Harrison and were joined later that year by his mother and the other children. All of the family subsequently returned to Louisiana except DeAlma who stayed with his uncle, C. E. Coffee, and attended the old Chadron Academy. He also worked on the Running Water and Rawhide ranches.

In 1909 he was married to Margaret Bannan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. A. Bannan of Harrison. He filed on a homestead near Lusk. Two daughters and seven sons were born to them. In 1931 he bought land east of Harrison where the family made their next home. They moved into Harrison in 1959 and celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary that year.

Mr. was known by his acquaintances and friends as a man of highest integrity. Few parents have enjoyed the devotion, admiration, and closeness of kinship that existed between him and his family, who looked upon him with utmost respect as an example of excellence in ideals.

He is survived by his wife, Margaret; two daughters, Mr. Jack (Beatrice) Burnham of Torrington and Mrs. John E. (Anna) Eberspecher of Harrison; five sons, William and Robert of Torrington, Jack of Sterling, Colo., Arthur of Vienna, Va., and Keith of Morrill. Two sons, Sam and Thomas, preceded him in death. Also surviving are one brother, Arthur, of Mandeville, La., 19 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.

Out-of-town people here for the funeral were Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Coffee of Edgemont, S. Dak.; Mr. and Mrs. Rudy Gruenwaldt of Custer, S. Dak.; Mr. and Mrs. Joe Le May of Alliance, Nebr., Mr. and Mrs. Gene Sprague and daughter of Guernsey, Wyo., Robert Bannan of Chadron, Nebr., Mrs. Elva Tremble of Crawford, and Mr. and Mrs. Bill DesEnfants, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Robinson and son, and Mr. and Mrs. Mahlon Petersen all of the Prairie Center Community, Goshen County, Wyo.

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