Elizabeth (McCLATCHEY) COIE

MCCLATCHEY, COIE, SLOSS

Posted By: Sharon R. Becker (email)
Date: 11/20/2008 at 09:22:46

The Mount Ayr Record-News, 1928

OBITUARY - MRS. ELIZABETH (McCLATCHEY) COIE

Elizabeth McCLATCHEY was born to Thomas McCLATCHEY and Margaret (SLOSS) McCLATCHEY in Magherafelt, County Derry, Ireland, on February 2, 1848. The oldest of six children, she was left an orphan at the age of 14 years and mothered the younger brothers and sisters until she came to this country when 19, bringing one sister with her. The other children followed later. She went first to North Bend, Neb., where she lived with an uncle, James SLOSS, until her marriage to John COIE on November 12, 1876.

As a bride she came to the farm northwest of Tingley where she has lived for almost 52 years. Here she not only was mother to her family but to her neighbors as well. To this union four children were born: Theo, John, Robert and Mae. These, with eight grandchildren, are still living.

Twelve years ago the first break came in the family circle when the father answered the call. [John COIE was born September 12, 1837 and died February 5, 1916.]

The memory that lingers with her children is that during all these years at nine-thirty on Sabbath morning, at the stroke of the bell, she, with her family, answered the call to worship. At nine-thirty, Sabbath, February 19, 1928, on the stroke of the bell she answered that more glorious call to be with her Lord and Savior.

To know her was to love - to name her was to praise.

Her life is beautifully expressed by a poem sent to her by a friend on her eightieth birthday:

***
TO GIVE ONE'S LIFE
"To give one's life through eighty years is harder
Than to give it in one moment gloriously;
To make each instant a brown willow basket
Heaped with fresh flowers and ferns, to stilly be,
A cup of never-failing cool spring water
To those who walk a dusty road alone;
To succor with life-giving bread, rewardless,
Those who expect a stone.
To give one's life, on weary days and hopeless,
To give one's life, hour after hour, and be
Ready to give again, again, is harder
Than to give it in a moment gloriously."

NOTE: John and Elizabeth (McCLATCHEY) COIE were interred at Tingley Cemetery, Tingley, Ringgold County, Iowa. Their son, Robert T. COIE (1882-1953) was also interred at Tingley Cemetery.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, 2008