Services for Jacqueline Ann Coker, 87, of Lufkin, Texas, will be held at 2:00 PM, Saturday, November 16, 2024, in the Gipson Funeral Home Chapel. Interment will follow at the Garden of Memories Memorial Park. The family will receive friends and guests from 3:00 to 7:00 PM, Friday, November 15, 2024, at Gipson Funeral Home.
Mrs. Coker was born February 23, 1937, in Collingswood, New Jersey, the daughter of Violet (Ross) and Jack Reid. She passed away on Sunday, November 10, 2024, at her residence, surrounded by her family.
Jackie loved music and trained as a professional singer in her younger years. She was given the opportunity to perform at Radio City Music Hall, as well as on a television show. She was also a professional secretary and was exceptionally skilled in the long-lost art of shorthand. Jackie dreamed of becoming a transcriber and translator at the United Nations in New York City. However, she then met her future husband, Lawrence Coker, who at the time was an electrical engineer at RCA in New Jersey. Soon after, Jackie found herself on an airplane landing at Dallas’ Love Field, where she embarked on her true life’s passion of becoming a wife and mother to three sons. Jackie and Larry were wed in 1957, and Jackie subsequently worked as a real estate broker and insurance agent. Later on, Jackie and Larry purchased and wrote, edited, and published the Sabine County Reporter in Hemphill, TX. However, her most cherished profession was serving as the Administrative Assistant for the Physics and Astronomy Department of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches for 17+ years. Being married to an electrical engineer, she naturally developed close, dear friendships with the professors and staff of the department. After retiring with Larry’s passing in 2003, Jackie remained devoted to her three sons and their families and, as always, enjoyed the company of a loving pet dog.
Survivors include her sons, Lloyd Coker and his wife, Diana Coker; Lane Coker; and Lee Coker and his wife, Dixie McClendon-Coker; and nephew Ross Buenzle. She will also be lovingly remembered by her grandchildren, Lehrina Anderson, Lisa Flores, Augustus Coker, and Gaius Coker, as well as her great-grandchildren, Ethan Telschow and Evangeline Flores.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Violet and Jack Reid; her husband, Lawrence Foster Coker; and her brother, Frederick “Tooie” Buenzle.
