Obit of Coggins, Marland "Pop" - Leflore County, Oklahoma Submitted by: Gene Phillips 25 Sep 2005 Return to Leflore County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/leflore/leflore.htm ========================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ========================================================================== MARLAND COGGINS Published on May 18, 1997 The Santa Rosa Press Democrat COLUMN: CLARK MASON Staff Writer Marland "Pop" Coggins, the cofounder and former owner of Coggins Fence and Supply Co. in Santa Rosa, died of a heart attack Wednesday a few hours after starting on a trip to visit relatives back East. Coggins, 80, who founded the fence company with his late brother in 1955, was driving near Hanford in King County with his wife when he suffered the heart failure. Coggins was born and raised in Poteau, Okla., and married his childhood sweetheart, Helen Juildeen Thompson, in 1938. He was a carpenter and during World War II he served in the Philippines as a Seabee, the construction battalion of the Navy. After the war, he worked in Ventura before coming to Santa Rosa and starting the fence company. "He was a really hard worker. He didn't want to sit around. He was always the kind of person that wanted to keep busy, whether he was tinkering with lawn mower engines or helping fix things," said his daughter Edye Dorado of Santa Rosa. "He was always doing something for somebody without expecting anything in return," she added. "He was always bringing people home for us to feed, people he didn't know. Anybody that was down and out on their luck, my dad would feed them and maybe give them money. That's the kind of guy he was. He was known for his generosity and his sense of humor." "Pop," as he was known, was an avid hunter and fisherman and played church league basketball until he was 64. He was also a member of the California Fence Association. In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by a son, Joe Coggins; another daughter, Kathy Altmann of Santa Rosa; his brothers, Bill Coggins of Santa Rosa and Sam Coggins of Magalia; his sisters, Matty E. Williams of Kerrville, Texas, Bernice Barton of Tijeras, N.M., Nancy Butler of Greenview and Katie Ross of Paradise; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandsons. Services will be 1 p.m. Tuesday at Church of the Nazarene in Santa Rosa. Burial will be in Oakland Cemetery, Poteau, Okla. Memorial contributions are suggested to a favorite charity. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to LeFlore County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/leflore/leflore.htm