Vera Coffee

Funeral services for 99-year old Vera Coffee of Harrison, NE, are Monday, August 8, 2022 at 10:00 AM at the Harrison Bible Church in Harrison with Pastor Matt Parker officiating.

Burial will be held in Bodarc Cemetery in Harrison.

A memorial has been established for the Harrison Rural Fire Department and donations may be sent in care of Chamberlain Chapel, PO Box 970, Chadron, NE 69337.

Online condolences may be left at www.chamberlainchapel.com

Vera Coffee was born on July 23, 1923, in her family home in McGrew, NE, to Fred Hardt Jr and Mary Elizabeth Geier Hardt. She passed peacefully on July 29, 2022 at Douglas Care Center in Douglas, Wyo, just 6 days after her 99th birthday.

Vera grew up on the family farm in McGrew and graduated from McGrew High School. She then attended Chadron State College, where she met and fell in love with her future husband, Rex T Coffee Jr of Chadron, NE.

They were married May 5, 1945, and moved to Florida where Rex was training as a bomber pilot in the U-S Navy. Later, they purchased the family ranch in Sioux County, which had been homesteaded in 1887, and started their family.

Vera loved being a ranch wife and mother. She was an excellent cook and was well-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 10 years while her children were in high school. Her husband Rex passed suddenly in 1981 and Vera returned to run the ranch full time, which she did with her son Dan Coffee until her passing.

Vera was never the type of person to just sit and do nothing, so she attended many of her grandchildren’s various activities. She enjoyed playing bridge and played in a weekly bridge club until she was 98.

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 loved working on the ranch and was always tacking fence on her 4-wheeler even in her nineties.

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.

Saturdays and Sundays, Vera was devoted to Nebraska football and the Denver Broncos, but 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 traveling and just enjoyed every day. She was extremely active until the past year.

She a 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, MT; Dan C Coffee, Harrison; Cyd E Coffee, Harrison; Jay R Coffee, Harrison; and Pam (Buff) Coffee, Alliance, NE; 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.