Obituary -- Placed 12-30-2002

Willie Belle Blythe Coker

Memorial services for Willie Belle Blythe Coker, 91, are scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2002 at Rosedale Baptist Church, 4400 Maybelle Avenue in Austin, with the Rev. Brian Quisenberry officiating.

Graveside services are scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2002, at Athens Cemetery under the direction of Carroll-Lehr Funeral Home in Athens.

Mrs. Coker died Dec. 26, 2002, at her daughter's home in Anchorage, Alaska.

She was born Dec. 14, 1911, in Kaufman County the daughter of H.E. and Lilla Maud Anthony Blythe. 

She grew up in Athens. Mrs. Coker finished high school early and enrolled in the University of Texas at Austin, where she received her BA degree. She taught English in high school for two years, and later she went back to the University of Texas at Austin for a master's degree in business education.

In 1939, she married Garland Coker of Athens. They moved to Austin in 1942, but frequently visited relatives in Athens. Mr. Coker, a civil engineer with the Texas Highway Department, preceded her in death in 1982.

Mrs. Coker was a secretary to writer and folklorist J. Frank Dobie for a dozen years before Dobie's death in 1964. She then worked at the University of Texas as librarian and curator of Dobie's extensive book collection.

She was a longtime member of Rosedale Baptist Church in Austin. 

Survivors include her daughter and son in law, Carolyn and Robert Rinehart of Anchorage, Alaska; granddaughter, Roberta Blythe Rinehart of Seattle, Washington; and nephew, Edward S. Blythe of Dallas.