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December 21, 2007

James Russell Coffey

I wrote about James Russell Coffey back in April when he decided to join the Coffey DNA project. He was 109 years.
Today, I received the news that James had died.
This is some of the information that appeared on the WTOL-TV 11 website in Toledo, OH:
NORTH BALTIMORE, Ohio (AP) -- One of only three known remaining American World War I veterans has died. The Smith-Crates Funeral Home in North Baltimore, Ohio says J. Russell Coffey died yesterday at the age of 109. He had been living in a nursing home. There's no word on the cause of death.The Veterans Affairs Department says Coffey was the last World War I vet in Ohio. Coffey enlisted in the Army in October 1918 while a student at Ohio State University. It was a month before the Allied powers and Germany signed a cease-fire agreement and Coffey did not see action overseas. He did play semipro baseball and earned a doctorate in education from New York University.  Coffey taught high school and college and raised a family. According to the funeral home, he drove his car until he was 104 and lived on his own until three years ago.
Click on the title link and look for a video link in the upper left corner.
I do not know how long Channel 11 will keep the information on their website.

2 comments:

Lisa / Smallest Leaf said...

Neither one of your links to this post about James Russell Coffey seems to be working correctly.

Thanks for sharing his story. I hope I share a similar longevity gene!

Lisa

http://www.small-leavedshamrock.blogspot.com

Jack Coffee said...

Oops! Thanks for pointing that out! I made an error in the link to the earlier post and, have corrected that one. I couldn't make the one to the video work so it was removed. You can still go to the Channel 11 website by clicking on the title link where you can then click on the video link.

Or, copy and past this link into your browsr:

http://www.wtol.com/global/story.asp?s=7528767