OBIT: Evan NOKES, 1887, Gaysport, Blair County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Tomi Larson July 25, 2008, 7:13 pm Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/ _________________________________________ The "Coker Poet" Evan Nokes, the venerable citizen of Gaysport whose death is announced in our Hollidaysburg letter, was in many respects a remarkable man. He had no education, but possessed great natural ability and was a maker of verse of no mean order. It was always his habit to recite his rhymes to some friend and many a ballad has the writer taken down from his lips. Some of them were published in various newspapers, but the great majority of them never saw the light of day. He was very proud of his well-deserved reputation as a maker of coke and never took kindly to the new fangled methods which are now in vogue. It may be that book learning would have spoiled the simplicity of the man, but we have always thought that the advantages of the schools would have made him a man of power. As it was he was a good, honest, upright citizen, and what better epitaph can any man have? Altoona Tribune, Altoona, Pa., May 31, 1887 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/