Vera Leona Coffee

Funeral Services for Vera L. Coffee, 99, of Harrison, Nebraska, will be Monday, August 8, 2022, at 10 a.m. at the Harrison Bible Church in Harrison with Pastor Matt Parker officiating. Burial will be at the Bodarc Cemetery following the service in Harrison.

Vera passed peacefully Friday morning July 29, 2022, at the Douglas Care Center, Douglas Wyoming.

Vera was born July 23, 1923, in her family home in McGrew, Nebraska, to Fred Hardt Jr. and Mary Elizabeth Geier Hardt. Vera grew up on the family farm in McGrew and graduated from McGrew high school.

Vera attended Chadron State College where she met and fell in love with her future husband Rex T. Coffee Jr. of Chadron, Nebraska. They were married May 5, 1945. They moved to Florida where Rex was training as a bomber pilot in the U.S. Navy. They purchased the family ranch that had been homesteaded in 1887 in Sioux County, and started their family.

Vera loved being a ranch wife and mother. She was an excellent cook known for her sticky cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, and her strawberry pies that she made for branding.

Vera taught kindergarten and reading at Harrison Elementary for ten years while her children were in high school. Rex T. Coffee passed suddenly in 1981, and Vera returned to run the ranch full time with her son Dan Coffee until her passing this year.

Vera was never the type of person to just sit and do nothing, so she attended many of her grandchildren's various activities. Vera enjoyed playing bridge and played in a weekly bridge club until she was 98. She loved working on the ranch and was always tacking fence on her 4-wheeler even in her nineties. Saturdays and Sundays she was devoted to Nebraska football and the Denver Broncos. Vera also enjoyed traveling.

Vera was one of the first people to have a 3-wheeler in Sioux County, which after a few tip overs was traded up to a red 4-wheeler. She went all over on her 4-wheeler right up to the time that her family restricted her riding solely to the ranch. She still rode her 4-wheeler when she was 98 years young.

She also loved watching Sioux County high school kids play football, volleyball, and basketball and was always willing to go to their games whether home or away.

Vera enjoyed every day and was extremely active until the past year.

Vera was a wonderful mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and friend to all. We will always admire her tenacity and zest for life.

Those left to cherish her memory are her children Sam B. (Nancy) Coffee, Stevensville, Montana; Dan C. Coffee, Harrison, Nebraska; Cyd E. Coffee, Harrison, Nebraska; Jay R. Coffee, Harrison, Nebraska; and Pam (Buff) Coffee, Alliance, Nebraska; grandchildren Megan Strawder, Jessie (Matt) Harris, Bailey Reeve, Colton (Alisha) Coffee, and great grandchildren Trenten Strawder, Taden Strawder, Riggin Harris, Jackson Reeve, and Samuel Colt Coffee. She is also survived by her sister Lorraine Hanson, sister-in-law Shirley Hardt, and her many nieces and nephews.

Preceding her in death are her husband Rex T. Coffee Jr.; son Buff C. Coffee; her parents; brother Don Hardt; brother-in-law Max Hanson; sister-in-law Jean Coffee Baker; and daughter-in-law Donna Coffee.

Memorials can be made to the Harrison Rural Fire Department in Memory of Vera Coffee.