Sue Coffman

1939 - 2025

A native of Houston and longtime resident of Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas, Dr. Sue Coffman passed into eternal rest on October 29th, 2025. A longtime educator, she felt the call to teach at age 10 but didn't determine her subject area until her junior year at the University of North Texas, where she earned a BA, MA and Ph.D. in English.

She began her teaching career at her alma mater, Paschal High School, in 1960, and over the next 32 years she taught high school and college courses at other high schools and several universities. In 1992 she began her second career as a self-employed editor, proofreader and writer for a variety of local and national clients, finally retiring in 2019.

For a time before the Dallas Times Herald closed in 1989, she wrote a weekly column on language. In 2000 she published a book on the English language-That's Just the Way It Is: The Amazing English Language-based largely on her columns.

An amateur hymnologist, she served on the committee that produced the 1991 Baptist hymnal and g over the years gave talks on the history of hymns.

A lover of the outdoors, she was for many years a hiker and backpacker. She was an inveterate traveler, visiting every continent except Antarctica. She also played tennis and softball, having inherited her father's baseball instincts. Reading was another passion, as were playing bridge and studying history. She always had at least one dog, and for a number of years she participated in animal-assisted therapy at Baylor University Medical Center.

She was a longtime member of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, where she sang alto in the Sanctuary Choir, was an ordained deacon, and participated in mission trips to China, Peru, Greece, North Africa, and the country she called her "second home"-Kenya-where she worked with AIDS orphans.

She is survived by one brother, two nephews and several cousins. A celebration of life is planned for Saturday, January 10th, 2026 at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Her body was donated for research at UT Southwestern Medical School, and a memorial headstone will be placed in the Coffman family plot in Fort Worth. Memorial gifts may be made to the Sierra Club, Wilshire Baptist Church, North Texas Scottie Rescue, or a charity of your choice.