After several years of health problems, Elizabeth Xan Coffee of Guntersville, Ala., (originally of Cullman, Ala.) passed away peacefully in her sleep Tuesday morning, March 5, 2002 of respiratory failure. She would have been 44 years old March 18.
A dean’s list graduate of Auburn University with a degree in Environmental Health after graduation from Cullman High School, Elizabeth showed Tennessee Walking Horses for well over a decade. Some of her many mounts included All That Glitters, A Little After Dawn, Someday, two-time reserve world champion Bianco, Bronze Elegance, Heavenly Delight, Mr. Toppit, Ace’s Cannon, Senator Delight R & R whom she only showed a few times, and her final show horse, the great mare R & R’s Charming Lady. The trainers who made the greatest impression on her equine endeavors were the late Hershell Talley, the late Joe Vann Clayton, the late George Witt, J.T. Leech, Billy and Tim Gray, Steve Aymett and Carl Edwards and Sons Stables. Liz also was greatly enamored of quarter horses and had many successful shows in this arena of competition after she stopped showing Tennessee Walking Horses.
She was the daughter of the late Fred D. and Xan Coffee, both of Cullman, and nothing brought Mr. and Mrs. Coffee greater pleasure than to see their beloved adopted daughters Elizabeth and Sarah Coffee Miller show. Other horses the Coffee family enjoyed much showring success with included 1982 Amateur World Grand Champion Senator Delight R & R - trained by Steve Aymett (ridden to the roses by Sarah after Reserve WGCs in 1980 and 1981), three time world champion and two time reserve world champion My Fair Lady, reserve world champion Ace’s All American (whose showring success came under the direction of trainer Ronnie Spears after being sold to Charles Terry, Pride’s Leading Lady, and The Lady In Lace, to name a few. Both Elizabeth and Sarah were very successful as catch riders too.
Elizabeth’s wishes were to be cremated and have her ashes and those of her beloved Harlequin Great Dane Blue Moon Over Tara (known as Sugar) buried between her parents’ graves in City Cemetery in Cullman, Ala. A very special memorial service was held for her at Moss Funeral Home in Cullman at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 10, with interment of ashes afterward.
Her only immediate surviving next of kin was her sister Sarah Coffee Miller and her husband Michael E. Miller of Estill Springs, Tenn. She had very close and loving relationships with her cousins Col. H. L. Coleman and his wife Hazel, and her second cousin Debra Coleman, of North Carolina and West Virginia respectively. She is also survived by other cousins whom she was not as close to.
But she had many, many wonderful friends whom she considered family, such as Greg Scofield of Guntersville who loved her more than life itself and welcomed her into his home any time she wanted to live there, the entire Bob Scofield family of Arab, Ala, Renee Mason, Clara Hagedorn Kent of Vinemont, Ala, Terri Waler Uptagrafft of Cullman, Bettye and Sonny Whitaker of Hanceville, Ala., Betty and daughter Kerri Bryant of Cullman and Washington, D.C. respectively, Jane and Tom Meredith of Roswell, Ga, Mandy Dawn of Brentwood, Tenn., Molly and Aleen Walker and Miranda Trammell of Hayden, Ala., Priscilla Taley of Baileyton, Ala. Grover Blaylock, Amie Lee marks, Liz Kyle Riehl, Lucy Starnes and Mark Huffstuttler, of Guntersville, Judy Shannon of Cullman, Ala., James B. Miller of Spring Hill, Tenn., Iris and Wayne Schumann of Shelbyville, Tenn., Debbie Jones of Florida and Larry Ross of Atlanta, Ga., to name only a few. And to those other very close friends whose names were not at our disposal, apologies are sent.
Elizabeth’s charities of choice and beneficiaries of her will are Guide Dogs for the Blind, the Humane Society of the United States, and the ASPCA. Should anyone like to make a memorial donation in her honor, these are the charities she would have wanted them to go to. She will be mourned and missed by many for a long, long time.