Netty Jane Coffman came into this world on November 1st, 1935, in Ada, Oklahoma, to her excited parents and an adoring older brother. She was instantly love to all who knew her and a Daddy’s girl from the start. She loved learning to cook and sew from her mother and loved visiting her Daddy at his bakery. Jane attended Ada schools throughout her life. She met Jesus at Oak Avenue Baptist Church at a young age and professed her love for Him from that day forward.
A handsome young man named Bobby beat out the all-star quarterback for her heart, and they were voted DeMolay Sweethearts by their graduating class in 1953. They married on June 26th, 1955. Her silver screen looks and his beautiful baritone voice could have taken them anywhere, but they lovingly chose Ada to be their lifelong home. They chose a life of service to the military and made a home that would be the one they both lived in until the days they both went home to heaven.
She played a vast array of roles for so many. She was a loving daughter. She did everything that she could to make her mother’s life more beautiful. This often included looking at flowers for countless hours, though she would never admit she was loving every second of it. They were a feisty pair. She was a Mama to three daughters that she loved and protected fiercely. She had a unique closeness with all three that lasted her entire lifetime, even when roles reversed and she was not fully herself. She was a mother to so many. Though she excelled at them all, arguably her favorite role was that of Nana. She was everybody’s Nana. She took in grandbabies and raised them as her own. Raising and loving on babies was truly her greatest joy in life. Every child that entered her home felt her immediate warmth, safety, care, joy, and unconditional love. Nana quite literally raised generations. Highlights include leading Bluebirds and Campfire Girls for her daughters, keeping us home from school when we probably should have gone to watch her “shows,” making us “trendy” homemade clothing, Amway parties to learn our color wheel/season, butter sugar sandwiches and homemade cherry pies, hosting countless slumber parties where no detail was overlooked, driving and traveling all over to perpetuate potential careers in acting/singing/dancing/pageants, sneaking us into her bed after Papa fell asleep to tickly our backs until we fell asleep, Ken’s Pizza dates to celebrate milestones in the lives of her kids and her extra kids, making us all begrudgingly pose for pictures that we are now glad to have, spoiling us with trips to Tinker to shop, pink foam rollers, dragging everyone to the storm shelter for hours just in case, rocking all of us in her green rocker even when we had outgrown her lap while always humming Brahm’s lullaby, and maybe most importantly, teaching us all the same prayer that is being passed down through generations.
She left this earthly world for her heavenly home on the evening of August 1st, 2022, peacefully, and in the presence of the dream team of caretakers that have sustained her in her home for years, her daughters Connie and Bobbie. A warm thank you to Elara Hospice and all of her doctors and caretakers over the years.
Jane is preceded in death by all of those who have been calling her home for the last few months including her husband, Robert Lee Coffman; parents Noble and Dora Mae Jobe; brother Noble Jobe, Jr; and in-laws Claude and Alta Ruth Coffman. She also has several aunts, uncles, cousins, and beloved friends celebrating her arrival.
Survivors include three daughters, Tami Throne, Connie Taylor and Bobbie Coffman, all of Ada; three grandchildren, Mandy Carter Coffman and Lucas Tarr, both of Ada, and Nikole Taylor of Norman, OK; great-grandchildren, Skylar Coffman, Tola Carter and Logan Tarr of Ada and Lofton Taylor of Norman, OK; great-great-grandchildren Layla Coffman, Kainen Harris, Jayden Mikeska and Bonnie Mikeska, all of Ada; as well as a multitude of beloved nieces, nephews, cousins and those whom she loved as her own.
Nana taught us how to love unconditionally. Her home was always open to everybody, always and without question. To many, she was home. Her legacy of love will live on always.
Criswell Funeral Home, Ada.
