Jan Coffman
Jan Lee Coffman, 78, passed away in the comfort of his home on Sunday, May 12, 2019, in Hamilton due to complications from congestive heart failure.
A graveside service was held at Laurel Land Memorial Park in Fort Worth May 18.
Mr. Coffman was born in Fort Worth to Clarence Edgar and Mary Louise Coffman, the youngest of three children.
He attended Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Texas Christian University and Howard Payne University in Brownwood.
At Howard Payne, he met the love of his life, Martha Jane Coffman. They were married in 1964 in McAllen and lived together for 55 years.
After completing his studies in business and accounting, he moved to Harlingen and worked for several agricultural businesses in the Rio Grande Valley and Mexico. He was a manager and foreman at Crockett Wholesale Nursery in Harlingen, Kinney Bonded Warehouse in Donna and Greenleaf Nursery in Harlingen. Clients included retail garden centers, the US Department of Agriculture and other wholesale nursery operations. He retired in 2005 and moved to Hamilton.
He had a passion for anything with wheels or wings. He purchased his first car at the age of 14, using savings from a newspaper route. Then, without a driver’s license and against his mother’s wishes, he drove his new car on the first day of school for ninth grade. This began a life-long passion for classic American cars and trucks of the ’40s through ’70s. On a typical weekend, he could be found in the family room watching Nascar, NHRA racing, Dallas Cowboys or taking his ’72 Chevy truck to a car show.
In his later years, he teamed up with Larry Sullivan to host the Hamilton Classic Car show, which drew like-minded car enthusiasts from around central Texas.
In addition to classic cars and hot rods, he loved mechanical projects of all kinds: woodworking, model trains and rockets, hobby horses and radio-controlled vehicles. Some of the most memorable DIY projects that entertained his family were a homemade fishing skiff, a replica Formula 1 car, minibikes and go-karts, dune buggies, a teardrop trailer and a hovercraft using plans purchased from Popular Mechanics magazine.
He was preceded in death by his parents and eldest sister, Donna Grubbs.
Survivors include his wife, Martha Jane Coffman; three children, Melanie Coffman of Tallulah, Louisiana, Tony and Chunling Coffman of Houston and Shelby and Roxanne Coffman of Harlingen; four grandsons, Gram Coffman, Neal Coffman, Trenton Coffman and Trevor Coffman; and a sister, Karen Baucom of San Angelo.
Memorial donations may be sent to Texas Pythian Home, https://pythianhome.org/Donate.html.
