This is her obituary published February 28, 1895 in the "Lincoln Sentinel-Republican", Lincoln, Kansas.
Bessie Coatney
News of the passing of a well-known Lincoln resident, Bessie Coatney, brought sadness to a large circle of friends in the community this week. Miss Coatney died Feb. 21, 1985, at Long Term Care Unit, Lincoln County Hospital.
Miss Coatney, or Aunt Bessie as she was called by many, was born Sept. 21, 1880, near Centerville, Iowa, and grew to womanhood in that area. Her parents were Michael and Julia Coatney.
Her mother passed away while Bessie was in her early teens. Bessie, the oldest daughter, took over the responsibility of caring for a family of six. Bessie sacrificed everything that was dear to a young girl, never complaining about her task. Her entire life was given to others who needed help. She gave her heart to Jesus in 1898 in the Wesley Methodist Church in Iowa. She came to Kansas in 1905 with her sister. In 1908 she transferred her membership to Harmony Presbyterian Church and, in 1923, to the Lincoln Presbyterian Church. She was always faithful in attendance.
Many times she said she loved all churches and was happier when in the service of her Lord gathering renewed strength for the days ahead. To pass the lonely hours she called on the sick. She loved all little children.
She was a member of the Woman’s Relief Corp and was president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union for two years.
Although she witnessed the passing of each one of her immediate family, she leaves many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and -nephews, and great-great-nieces and–nephews.
The funeral services were held Feb. 25 at Lincoln Presbyterian Church. Interment was at Lincoln Cemetery.
-------------------------
A few years prior to this, the same newspaper had a nice article about her turning 100 years old:
Newspaper clipping: September 21, 1980
BESSIE COATNEY WILL BE 100 SUNDAY
"The Lord willing, Sunday, September 21 will be a special day for Bessie Coatney, a woman whose accommodating nature and helping hands have come to the rescue of countless people spanning several generations here at Lincoln. Miss Coatney, with the help of several relatives and a host of friends and well wishers, will celebrate her 100th birthday on that date.
A birthday reception in her honor will be held from 2 until 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon in the Lincoln County Hospital dining room. The public is more cordially invited to the milestone event being hosted jointly by the Long Term Care Unit where she has resided since October, 1979, and by women of the Presbyterian Church where she has been a member since March 26, 1923.
With Sunday's arrival, Bessie Belle Coatney will join the charmed circle of long-lived Lincoln women who have already attained the distinguished ranks of centenarians: Mrs. Ida Brown, Mrs. Clara Spear and Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Salkeld.
Reflecting on her long life one day recently, Miss Coatney figured that everyone simply "ought to keep busy. People ought to harbor good thoughts, too," she surmised.
Bessie has had a busy life.
Born to Michael Luther and Julia Frances Jackson Coatney on September 21, 1880 at Centerville in Appanoose county, Iowa, she was the first born of twins, the oldest of a family of five children. Her twin, Jesse, and she learned to help out at an early age--he outside, she with the household chores. Her mother died at the age of 40. Sixteen-year-old Bessie was a mother to the younger children, doing everything she had been taught to do. She had had eight years of education and would have liked more if conditions permitted it. Instead, she saw to it that her young siblings were fed, clothed, kept warm and healthy, and went to school themselves.
An accomplished seamstress and tailor, Bessie's skills were gained at an old Crown sewing machine. Later, a new Singer thrilled the young woman--she brought it to Kansas in 1905.
Bessie's memories are made of this:
Walking a mile and half, one way, to country school, unpaved roads a trial to little feet in rainy seasons; frequently the water would rise over the road in lowlands, forcing the children to scramble across a log over the swift, swollen stream to get home. What bliss when someone would meet them and haul them across on horseback.
The family lived near a river where a mill ground meal and flour, and a lovely grove of hickory and oak trees afforded protection against strong southwest winds. Towards the back of the farmstead was an orchard. Bessie well remembers the crisp texture and sweet juiciness of the "mostly reds" and of the "green striped" Ben Davis and Jonathan apples her father's orchard produced. She recalls her mother having taken 90 dozen eggs to town to "trade" one late fall morning, and to this day her favorite pet is a baby chick. "They look so innocent," exclaims Bessie, hands gently cupped together as she would hold a fluffy chick.
To church in a buckboard, and later a spring wagon---how comfortable was the latter, laughs Bessie. Fields of hay--Timothy clover--and large corn crops keep the menfolks of her family busy. People needed help, and Bessie's lifetime of service began early.
In 1905 Miss Coatney brought her young sister, Maude, to Lincoln. For a number of years they made their home with Manning and Hunter relatives, Bessie earning her and her little sister's keep by sewing and nursing and housework--whatever needed to be done. When her father arrived at Lincoln he was ill, and died before they accomplished plans to set up housekeeping on their own.
Along about the time of World War I, Miss Coatney left Lincoln to travel with Calumet, then a new baking powder. Demonstrating its superiority to other brands by means of a monologue, copper kettle, small tripod and canned heat, she was a member of a team that traveled through Missouri, Ohio and Illinois giving house to house demonstrations as well as in stores. She received the first pay check of her lifetime from Calumet.
Bessie was in Chicago early one winter when bells began to ring wildly at 11 o'clock. It was November 11, 1918 and the armistice had been signed. She tells that it was useless to attempt to conduct business that day. Jubilant crowds jostled and shoved and hugged and danced in the streets, and she laughed as she recalled toilet tissue streamers strewn from tall buildings along The Loop. Friends held tightly to one another as so many people crowded together in the streets that great buttons on their coats were twisted back to press painfully against the flesh--some torn off, she said.
"It seems we never get by very long without war," she worried. "The youth can't ever safely plan college or marriage for it." She reflected further, "If everyone were Christian--real Christian!--not just church going--there'd be no more war. Wars are just waged for money makers," she declared.
The patriot talked about the former presidents of her beloved country. "I especially liked all the early presidents," she said. "They seemed to be men of great intellect who served well." Her favorite candidate ran three times and was never elected. "If William Jennings Bryan would have been elected, he'd have been my favorite," she volunteered. He was "too religious" for most people, it seemed to her. "Not any of us in this world are perfect," she stressed, acknowledging that some presidents have had more problems than others.
Miss Coatney's grandfather was a "boy in blue," a Union soldier. She has been a long-time member of the Woman's Relief Corps, founded to memorialize and perpetuate the memory of veterans. In the earlier days she did temperance work, too..
Helping busy farm wives cook for hungry harvest crews in the 20s and 30s was hard work that Miss Coatney recalls with relish.
"We were up at 5 or earlier each morning to begin the day. We'd fix meats and drink and several vegetables and rice--we'd stir an egg into the rice and make to look so nice. And, then bake cakes and cookies and prepare some kind of fruit, too." After the dishes, the women would rest a bit, then get started with the evening meal. They had no problems getting to sleep at night!
Her love for her family is readily discerned. She kept her brother's children and sent them to school at Lincoln for a time after their mother died. She liked sewing for children, too. She served as a mid-wife. And, as a nurse.
"I've always tried to help people out when they have needed me. I have done charity work, and I've gone to church as regularly as I could. They tell me I'm independent!" she smiled.
A member of the local Presbyterian Church for 57 years, Miss Coatney has belonged to four women's circles. She enjoys reading scripture and messages from a Daily Bread publication, using a reading glass in addition to her eyeglasses.
Although her hearing is not what it once was, Bessie gets along very well in this regard; she walks unassisted.
A mishap late last week left the diminutive Lincoln woman with a sore forehead and a blackened eye. It was bad timing, with her birthday party coming up in a few days; however, the bump didn't prevent the plucky woman from keeping appointments at Salina later in the week. And, her plans are firm to be back at Lincoln in plenty of time for the celebration Sunday afternoon.
Caption under picture of Bessie: Profile of a real trooper! Bessie Coatney presents a profile view to the camera one day last week after a bump on her noggin caused a beaut of a shiner around her left eye. The shiner didn't keep this gal from her appointment with a Sentinel staffer or from posing for a photo that afternoon. And, it's not going to keep her from having a good time at the party planned in honor of her 100th birthday Sunday! Everybody's invited."
----------------------------------------
Personal remembrance:
I remember Bessie as a very, very small woman: short of stature but large of heart. I remember her wearing an ankle-length fur coat to church (Presbyterian church in Lincoln) every Sunday. She would seek out her relatives, including me, even though I was but a child and she was in her 70's. She was shorter than I even though I was less than 12 years old. My parents explained to me that family was everything to her (and obviously age was no obstacle to her striking up a conversation!).
----------------------------------
She was laid to rest next to her Aunt Martha (Jackson) Manning.
Bessie Coatney
News of the passing of a well-known Lincoln resident, Bessie Coatney, brought sadness to a large circle of friends in the community this week. Miss Coatney died Feb. 21, 1985, at Long Term Care Unit, Lincoln County Hospital.
Miss Coatney, or Aunt Bessie as she was called by many, was born Sept. 21, 1880, near Centerville, Iowa, and grew to womanhood in that area. Her parents were Michael and Julia Coatney.
Her mother passed away while Bessie was in her early teens. Bessie, the oldest daughter, took over the responsibility of caring for a family of six. Bessie sacrificed everything that was dear to a young girl, never complaining about her task. Her entire life was given to others who needed help. She gave her heart to Jesus in 1898 in the Wesley Methodist Church in Iowa. She came to Kansas in 1905 with her sister. In 1908 she transferred her membership to Harmony Presbyterian Church and, in 1923, to the Lincoln Presbyterian Church. She was always faithful in attendance.
Many times she said she loved all churches and was happier when in the service of her Lord gathering renewed strength for the days ahead. To pass the lonely hours she called on the sick. She loved all little children.
She was a member of the Woman’s Relief Corp and was president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union for two years.
Although she witnessed the passing of each one of her immediate family, she leaves many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and -nephews, and great-great-nieces and–nephews.
The funeral services were held Feb. 25 at Lincoln Presbyterian Church. Interment was at Lincoln Cemetery.
-------------------------
A few years prior to this, the same newspaper had a nice article about her turning 100 years old:
Newspaper clipping: September 21, 1980
BESSIE COATNEY WILL BE 100 SUNDAY
"The Lord willing, Sunday, September 21 will be a special day for Bessie Coatney, a woman whose accommodating nature and helping hands have come to the rescue of countless people spanning several generations here at Lincoln. Miss Coatney, with the help of several relatives and a host of friends and well wishers, will celebrate her 100th birthday on that date.
A birthday reception in her honor will be held from 2 until 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon in the Lincoln County Hospital dining room. The public is more cordially invited to the milestone event being hosted jointly by the Long Term Care Unit where she has resided since October, 1979, and by women of the Presbyterian Church where she has been a member since March 26, 1923.
With Sunday's arrival, Bessie Belle Coatney will join the charmed circle of long-lived Lincoln women who have already attained the distinguished ranks of centenarians: Mrs. Ida Brown, Mrs. Clara Spear and Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Salkeld.
Reflecting on her long life one day recently, Miss Coatney figured that everyone simply "ought to keep busy. People ought to harbor good thoughts, too," she surmised.
Bessie has had a busy life.
Born to Michael Luther and Julia Frances Jackson Coatney on September 21, 1880 at Centerville in Appanoose county, Iowa, she was the first born of twins, the oldest of a family of five children. Her twin, Jesse, and she learned to help out at an early age--he outside, she with the household chores. Her mother died at the age of 40. Sixteen-year-old Bessie was a mother to the younger children, doing everything she had been taught to do. She had had eight years of education and would have liked more if conditions permitted it. Instead, she saw to it that her young siblings were fed, clothed, kept warm and healthy, and went to school themselves.
An accomplished seamstress and tailor, Bessie's skills were gained at an old Crown sewing machine. Later, a new Singer thrilled the young woman--she brought it to Kansas in 1905.
Bessie's memories are made of this:
Walking a mile and half, one way, to country school, unpaved roads a trial to little feet in rainy seasons; frequently the water would rise over the road in lowlands, forcing the children to scramble across a log over the swift, swollen stream to get home. What bliss when someone would meet them and haul them across on horseback.
The family lived near a river where a mill ground meal and flour, and a lovely grove of hickory and oak trees afforded protection against strong southwest winds. Towards the back of the farmstead was an orchard. Bessie well remembers the crisp texture and sweet juiciness of the "mostly reds" and of the "green striped" Ben Davis and Jonathan apples her father's orchard produced. She recalls her mother having taken 90 dozen eggs to town to "trade" one late fall morning, and to this day her favorite pet is a baby chick. "They look so innocent," exclaims Bessie, hands gently cupped together as she would hold a fluffy chick.
To church in a buckboard, and later a spring wagon---how comfortable was the latter, laughs Bessie. Fields of hay--Timothy clover--and large corn crops keep the menfolks of her family busy. People needed help, and Bessie's lifetime of service began early.
In 1905 Miss Coatney brought her young sister, Maude, to Lincoln. For a number of years they made their home with Manning and Hunter relatives, Bessie earning her and her little sister's keep by sewing and nursing and housework--whatever needed to be done. When her father arrived at Lincoln he was ill, and died before they accomplished plans to set up housekeeping on their own.
Along about the time of World War I, Miss Coatney left Lincoln to travel with Calumet, then a new baking powder. Demonstrating its superiority to other brands by means of a monologue, copper kettle, small tripod and canned heat, she was a member of a team that traveled through Missouri, Ohio and Illinois giving house to house demonstrations as well as in stores. She received the first pay check of her lifetime from Calumet.
Bessie was in Chicago early one winter when bells began to ring wildly at 11 o'clock. It was November 11, 1918 and the armistice had been signed. She tells that it was useless to attempt to conduct business that day. Jubilant crowds jostled and shoved and hugged and danced in the streets, and she laughed as she recalled toilet tissue streamers strewn from tall buildings along The Loop. Friends held tightly to one another as so many people crowded together in the streets that great buttons on their coats were twisted back to press painfully against the flesh--some torn off, she said.
"It seems we never get by very long without war," she worried. "The youth can't ever safely plan college or marriage for it." She reflected further, "If everyone were Christian--real Christian!--not just church going--there'd be no more war. Wars are just waged for money makers," she declared.
The patriot talked about the former presidents of her beloved country. "I especially liked all the early presidents," she said. "They seemed to be men of great intellect who served well." Her favorite candidate ran three times and was never elected. "If William Jennings Bryan would have been elected, he'd have been my favorite," she volunteered. He was "too religious" for most people, it seemed to her. "Not any of us in this world are perfect," she stressed, acknowledging that some presidents have had more problems than others.
Miss Coatney's grandfather was a "boy in blue," a Union soldier. She has been a long-time member of the Woman's Relief Corps, founded to memorialize and perpetuate the memory of veterans. In the earlier days she did temperance work, too..
Helping busy farm wives cook for hungry harvest crews in the 20s and 30s was hard work that Miss Coatney recalls with relish.
"We were up at 5 or earlier each morning to begin the day. We'd fix meats and drink and several vegetables and rice--we'd stir an egg into the rice and make to look so nice. And, then bake cakes and cookies and prepare some kind of fruit, too." After the dishes, the women would rest a bit, then get started with the evening meal. They had no problems getting to sleep at night!
Her love for her family is readily discerned. She kept her brother's children and sent them to school at Lincoln for a time after their mother died. She liked sewing for children, too. She served as a mid-wife. And, as a nurse.
"I've always tried to help people out when they have needed me. I have done charity work, and I've gone to church as regularly as I could. They tell me I'm independent!" she smiled.
A member of the local Presbyterian Church for 57 years, Miss Coatney has belonged to four women's circles. She enjoys reading scripture and messages from a Daily Bread publication, using a reading glass in addition to her eyeglasses.
Although her hearing is not what it once was, Bessie gets along very well in this regard; she walks unassisted.
A mishap late last week left the diminutive Lincoln woman with a sore forehead and a blackened eye. It was bad timing, with her birthday party coming up in a few days; however, the bump didn't prevent the plucky woman from keeping appointments at Salina later in the week. And, her plans are firm to be back at Lincoln in plenty of time for the celebration Sunday afternoon.
Caption under picture of Bessie: Profile of a real trooper! Bessie Coatney presents a profile view to the camera one day last week after a bump on her noggin caused a beaut of a shiner around her left eye. The shiner didn't keep this gal from her appointment with a Sentinel staffer or from posing for a photo that afternoon. And, it's not going to keep her from having a good time at the party planned in honor of her 100th birthday Sunday! Everybody's invited."
----------------------------------------
Personal remembrance:
I remember Bessie as a very, very small woman: short of stature but large of heart. I remember her wearing an ankle-length fur coat to church (Presbyterian church in Lincoln) every Sunday. She would seek out her relatives, including me, even though I was but a child and she was in her 70's. She was shorter than I even though I was less than 12 years old. My parents explained to me that family was everything to her (and obviously age was no obstacle to her striking up a conversation!).
----------------------------------
She was laid to rest next to her Aunt Martha (Jackson) Manning.
This is her obituary published February 28, 1895 in the "Lincoln Sentinel-Republican", Lincoln, Kansas.
Bessie Coatney
News of the passing of a well-known Lincoln resident, Bessie Coatney, brought sadness to a large circle of friends in the community this week. Miss Coatney died Feb. 21, 1985, at Long Term Care Unit, Lincoln County Hospital.
Miss Coatney, or Aunt Bessie as she was called by many, was born Sept. 21, 1880, near Centerville, Iowa, and grew to womanhood in that area. Her parents were Michael and Julia Coatney.
Her mother passed away while Bessie was in her early teens. Bessie, the oldest daughter, took over the responsibility of caring for a family of six. Bessie sacrificed everything that was dear to a young girl, never complaining about her task. Her entire life was given to others who needed help. She gave her heart to Jesus in 1898 in the Wesley Methodist Church in Iowa. She came to Kansas in 1905 with her sister. In 1908 she transferred her membership to Harmony Presbyterian Church and, in 1923, to the Lincoln Presbyterian Church. She was always faithful in attendance.
Many times she said she loved all churches and was happier when in the service of her Lord gathering renewed strength for the days ahead. To pass the lonely hours she called on the sick. She loved all little children.
She was a member of the Woman’s Relief Corp and was president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union for two years.
Although she witnessed the passing of each one of her immediate family, she leaves many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and -nephews, and great-great-nieces and–nephews.
The funeral services were held Feb. 25 at Lincoln Presbyterian Church. Interment was at Lincoln Cemetery.
-------------------------
A few years prior to this, the same newspaper had a nice article about her turning 100 years old:
Newspaper clipping: September 21, 1980
BESSIE COATNEY WILL BE 100 SUNDAY
"The Lord willing, Sunday, September 21 will be a special day for Bessie Coatney, a woman whose accommodating nature and helping hands have come to the rescue of countless people spanning several generations here at Lincoln. Miss Coatney, with the help of several relatives and a host of friends and well wishers, will celebrate her 100th birthday on that date.
A birthday reception in her honor will be held from 2 until 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon in the Lincoln County Hospital dining room. The public is more cordially invited to the milestone event being hosted jointly by the Long Term Care Unit where she has resided since October, 1979, and by women of the Presbyterian Church where she has been a member since March 26, 1923.
With Sunday's arrival, Bessie Belle Coatney will join the charmed circle of long-lived Lincoln women who have already attained the distinguished ranks of centenarians: Mrs. Ida Brown, Mrs. Clara Spear and Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Salkeld.
Reflecting on her long life one day recently, Miss Coatney figured that everyone simply "ought to keep busy. People ought to harbor good thoughts, too," she surmised.
Bessie has had a busy life.
Born to Michael Luther and Julia Frances Jackson Coatney on September 21, 1880 at Centerville in Appanoose county, Iowa, she was the first born of twins, the oldest of a family of five children. Her twin, Jesse, and she learned to help out at an early age--he outside, she with the household chores. Her mother died at the age of 40. Sixteen-year-old Bessie was a mother to the younger children, doing everything she had been taught to do. She had had eight years of education and would have liked more if conditions permitted it. Instead, she saw to it that her young siblings were fed, clothed, kept warm and healthy, and went to school themselves.
An accomplished seamstress and tailor, Bessie's skills were gained at an old Crown sewing machine. Later, a new Singer thrilled the young woman--she brought it to Kansas in 1905.
Bessie's memories are made of this:
Walking a mile and half, one way, to country school, unpaved roads a trial to little feet in rainy seasons; frequently the water would rise over the road in lowlands, forcing the children to scramble across a log over the swift, swollen stream to get home. What bliss when someone would meet them and haul them across on horseback.
The family lived near a river where a mill ground meal and flour, and a lovely grove of hickory and oak trees afforded protection against strong southwest winds. Towards the back of the farmstead was an orchard. Bessie well remembers the crisp texture and sweet juiciness of the "mostly reds" and of the "green striped" Ben Davis and Jonathan apples her father's orchard produced. She recalls her mother having taken 90 dozen eggs to town to "trade" one late fall morning, and to this day her favorite pet is a baby chick. "They look so innocent," exclaims Bessie, hands gently cupped together as she would hold a fluffy chick.
To church in a buckboard, and later a spring wagon---how comfortable was the latter, laughs Bessie. Fields of hay--Timothy clover--and large corn crops keep the menfolks of her family busy. People needed help, and Bessie's lifetime of service began early.
In 1905 Miss Coatney brought her young sister, Maude, to Lincoln. For a number of years they made their home with Manning and Hunter relatives, Bessie earning her and her little sister's keep by sewing and nursing and housework--whatever needed to be done. When her father arrived at Lincoln he was ill, and died before they accomplished plans to set up housekeeping on their own.
Along about the time of World War I, Miss Coatney left Lincoln to travel with Calumet, then a new baking powder. Demonstrating its superiority to other brands by means of a monologue, copper kettle, small tripod and canned heat, she was a member of a team that traveled through Missouri, Ohio and Illinois giving house to house demonstrations as well as in stores. She received the first pay check of her lifetime from Calumet.
Bessie was in Chicago early one winter when bells began to ring wildly at 11 o'clock. It was November 11, 1918 and the armistice had been signed. She tells that it was useless to attempt to conduct business that day. Jubilant crowds jostled and shoved and hugged and danced in the streets, and she laughed as she recalled toilet tissue streamers strewn from tall buildings along The Loop. Friends held tightly to one another as so many people crowded together in the streets that great buttons on their coats were twisted back to press painfully against the flesh--some torn off, she said.
"It seems we never get by very long without war," she worried. "The youth can't ever safely plan college or marriage for it." She reflected further, "If everyone were Christian--real Christian!--not just church going--there'd be no more war. Wars are just waged for money makers," she declared.
The patriot talked about the former presidents of her beloved country. "I especially liked all the early presidents," she said. "They seemed to be men of great intellect who served well." Her favorite candidate ran three times and was never elected. "If William Jennings Bryan would have been elected, he'd have been my favorite," she volunteered. He was "too religious" for most people, it seemed to her. "Not any of us in this world are perfect," she stressed, acknowledging that some presidents have had more problems than others.
Miss Coatney's grandfather was a "boy in blue," a Union soldier. She has been a long-time member of the Woman's Relief Corps, founded to memorialize and perpetuate the memory of veterans. In the earlier days she did temperance work, too..
Helping busy farm wives cook for hungry harvest crews in the 20s and 30s was hard work that Miss Coatney recalls with relish.
"We were up at 5 or earlier each morning to begin the day. We'd fix meats and drink and several vegetables and rice--we'd stir an egg into the rice and make to look so nice. And, then bake cakes and cookies and prepare some kind of fruit, too." After the dishes, the women would rest a bit, then get started with the evening meal. They had no problems getting to sleep at night!
Her love for her family is readily discerned. She kept her brother's children and sent them to school at Lincoln for a time after their mother died. She liked sewing for children, too. She served as a mid-wife. And, as a nurse.
"I've always tried to help people out when they have needed me. I have done charity work, and I've gone to church as regularly as I could. They tell me I'm independent!" she smiled.
A member of the local Presbyterian Church for 57 years, Miss Coatney has belonged to four women's circles. She enjoys reading scripture and messages from a Daily Bread publication, using a reading glass in addition to her eyeglasses.
Although her hearing is not what it once was, Bessie gets along very well in this regard; she walks unassisted.
A mishap late last week left the diminutive Lincoln woman with a sore forehead and a blackened eye. It was bad timing, with her birthday party coming up in a few days; however, the bump didn't prevent the plucky woman from keeping appointments at Salina later in the week. And, her plans are firm to be back at Lincoln in plenty of time for the celebration Sunday afternoon.
Caption under picture of Bessie: Profile of a real trooper! Bessie Coatney presents a profile view to the camera one day last week after a bump on her noggin caused a beaut of a shiner around her left eye. The shiner didn't keep this gal from her appointment with a Sentinel staffer or from posing for a photo that afternoon. And, it's not going to keep her from having a good time at the party planned in honor of her 100th birthday Sunday! Everybody's invited."
----------------------------------------
Personal remembrance:
I remember Bessie as a very, very small woman: short of stature but large of heart. I remember her wearing an ankle-length fur coat to church (Presbyterian church in Lincoln) every Sunday. She would seek out her relatives, including me, even though I was but a child and she was in her 70's. She was shorter than I even though I was less than 12 years old. My parents explained to me that family was everything to her (and obviously age was no obstacle to her striking up a conversation!).
----------------------------------
She was laid to rest next to her Aunt Martha (Jackson) Manning.
Bessie Coatney
News of the passing of a well-known Lincoln resident, Bessie Coatney, brought sadness to a large circle of friends in the community this week. Miss Coatney died Feb. 21, 1985, at Long Term Care Unit, Lincoln County Hospital.
Miss Coatney, or Aunt Bessie as she was called by many, was born Sept. 21, 1880, near Centerville, Iowa, and grew to womanhood in that area. Her parents were Michael and Julia Coatney.
Her mother passed away while Bessie was in her early teens. Bessie, the oldest daughter, took over the responsibility of caring for a family of six. Bessie sacrificed everything that was dear to a young girl, never complaining about her task. Her entire life was given to others who needed help. She gave her heart to Jesus in 1898 in the Wesley Methodist Church in Iowa. She came to Kansas in 1905 with her sister. In 1908 she transferred her membership to Harmony Presbyterian Church and, in 1923, to the Lincoln Presbyterian Church. She was always faithful in attendance.
Many times she said she loved all churches and was happier when in the service of her Lord gathering renewed strength for the days ahead. To pass the lonely hours she called on the sick. She loved all little children.
She was a member of the Woman’s Relief Corp and was president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union for two years.
Although she witnessed the passing of each one of her immediate family, she leaves many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and -nephews, and great-great-nieces and–nephews.
The funeral services were held Feb. 25 at Lincoln Presbyterian Church. Interment was at Lincoln Cemetery.
-------------------------
A few years prior to this, the same newspaper had a nice article about her turning 100 years old:
Newspaper clipping: September 21, 1980
BESSIE COATNEY WILL BE 100 SUNDAY
"The Lord willing, Sunday, September 21 will be a special day for Bessie Coatney, a woman whose accommodating nature and helping hands have come to the rescue of countless people spanning several generations here at Lincoln. Miss Coatney, with the help of several relatives and a host of friends and well wishers, will celebrate her 100th birthday on that date.
A birthday reception in her honor will be held from 2 until 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon in the Lincoln County Hospital dining room. The public is more cordially invited to the milestone event being hosted jointly by the Long Term Care Unit where she has resided since October, 1979, and by women of the Presbyterian Church where she has been a member since March 26, 1923.
With Sunday's arrival, Bessie Belle Coatney will join the charmed circle of long-lived Lincoln women who have already attained the distinguished ranks of centenarians: Mrs. Ida Brown, Mrs. Clara Spear and Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Salkeld.
Reflecting on her long life one day recently, Miss Coatney figured that everyone simply "ought to keep busy. People ought to harbor good thoughts, too," she surmised.
Bessie has had a busy life.
Born to Michael Luther and Julia Frances Jackson Coatney on September 21, 1880 at Centerville in Appanoose county, Iowa, she was the first born of twins, the oldest of a family of five children. Her twin, Jesse, and she learned to help out at an early age--he outside, she with the household chores. Her mother died at the age of 40. Sixteen-year-old Bessie was a mother to the younger children, doing everything she had been taught to do. She had had eight years of education and would have liked more if conditions permitted it. Instead, she saw to it that her young siblings were fed, clothed, kept warm and healthy, and went to school themselves.
An accomplished seamstress and tailor, Bessie's skills were gained at an old Crown sewing machine. Later, a new Singer thrilled the young woman--she brought it to Kansas in 1905.
Bessie's memories are made of this:
Walking a mile and half, one way, to country school, unpaved roads a trial to little feet in rainy seasons; frequently the water would rise over the road in lowlands, forcing the children to scramble across a log over the swift, swollen stream to get home. What bliss when someone would meet them and haul them across on horseback.
The family lived near a river where a mill ground meal and flour, and a lovely grove of hickory and oak trees afforded protection against strong southwest winds. Towards the back of the farmstead was an orchard. Bessie well remembers the crisp texture and sweet juiciness of the "mostly reds" and of the "green striped" Ben Davis and Jonathan apples her father's orchard produced. She recalls her mother having taken 90 dozen eggs to town to "trade" one late fall morning, and to this day her favorite pet is a baby chick. "They look so innocent," exclaims Bessie, hands gently cupped together as she would hold a fluffy chick.
To church in a buckboard, and later a spring wagon---how comfortable was the latter, laughs Bessie. Fields of hay--Timothy clover--and large corn crops keep the menfolks of her family busy. People needed help, and Bessie's lifetime of service began early.
In 1905 Miss Coatney brought her young sister, Maude, to Lincoln. For a number of years they made their home with Manning and Hunter relatives, Bessie earning her and her little sister's keep by sewing and nursing and housework--whatever needed to be done. When her father arrived at Lincoln he was ill, and died before they accomplished plans to set up housekeeping on their own.
Along about the time of World War I, Miss Coatney left Lincoln to travel with Calumet, then a new baking powder. Demonstrating its superiority to other brands by means of a monologue, copper kettle, small tripod and canned heat, she was a member of a team that traveled through Missouri, Ohio and Illinois giving house to house demonstrations as well as in stores. She received the first pay check of her lifetime from Calumet.
Bessie was in Chicago early one winter when bells began to ring wildly at 11 o'clock. It was November 11, 1918 and the armistice had been signed. She tells that it was useless to attempt to conduct business that day. Jubilant crowds jostled and shoved and hugged and danced in the streets, and she laughed as she recalled toilet tissue streamers strewn from tall buildings along The Loop. Friends held tightly to one another as so many people crowded together in the streets that great buttons on their coats were twisted back to press painfully against the flesh--some torn off, she said.
"It seems we never get by very long without war," she worried. "The youth can't ever safely plan college or marriage for it." She reflected further, "If everyone were Christian--real Christian!--not just church going--there'd be no more war. Wars are just waged for money makers," she declared.
The patriot talked about the former presidents of her beloved country. "I especially liked all the early presidents," she said. "They seemed to be men of great intellect who served well." Her favorite candidate ran three times and was never elected. "If William Jennings Bryan would have been elected, he'd have been my favorite," she volunteered. He was "too religious" for most people, it seemed to her. "Not any of us in this world are perfect," she stressed, acknowledging that some presidents have had more problems than others.
Miss Coatney's grandfather was a "boy in blue," a Union soldier. She has been a long-time member of the Woman's Relief Corps, founded to memorialize and perpetuate the memory of veterans. In the earlier days she did temperance work, too..
Helping busy farm wives cook for hungry harvest crews in the 20s and 30s was hard work that Miss Coatney recalls with relish.
"We were up at 5 or earlier each morning to begin the day. We'd fix meats and drink and several vegetables and rice--we'd stir an egg into the rice and make to look so nice. And, then bake cakes and cookies and prepare some kind of fruit, too." After the dishes, the women would rest a bit, then get started with the evening meal. They had no problems getting to sleep at night!
Her love for her family is readily discerned. She kept her brother's children and sent them to school at Lincoln for a time after their mother died. She liked sewing for children, too. She served as a mid-wife. And, as a nurse.
"I've always tried to help people out when they have needed me. I have done charity work, and I've gone to church as regularly as I could. They tell me I'm independent!" she smiled.
A member of the local Presbyterian Church for 57 years, Miss Coatney has belonged to four women's circles. She enjoys reading scripture and messages from a Daily Bread publication, using a reading glass in addition to her eyeglasses.
Although her hearing is not what it once was, Bessie gets along very well in this regard; she walks unassisted.
A mishap late last week left the diminutive Lincoln woman with a sore forehead and a blackened eye. It was bad timing, with her birthday party coming up in a few days; however, the bump didn't prevent the plucky woman from keeping appointments at Salina later in the week. And, her plans are firm to be back at Lincoln in plenty of time for the celebration Sunday afternoon.
Caption under picture of Bessie: Profile of a real trooper! Bessie Coatney presents a profile view to the camera one day last week after a bump on her noggin caused a beaut of a shiner around her left eye. The shiner didn't keep this gal from her appointment with a Sentinel staffer or from posing for a photo that afternoon. And, it's not going to keep her from having a good time at the party planned in honor of her 100th birthday Sunday! Everybody's invited."
----------------------------------------
Personal remembrance:
I remember Bessie as a very, very small woman: short of stature but large of heart. I remember her wearing an ankle-length fur coat to church (Presbyterian church in Lincoln) every Sunday. She would seek out her relatives, including me, even though I was but a child and she was in her 70's. She was shorter than I even though I was less than 12 years old. My parents explained to me that family was everything to her (and obviously age was no obstacle to her striking up a conversation!).
----------------------------------
She was laid to rest next to her Aunt Martha (Jackson) Manning.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
