Flora A. Coghlan

Flora A Coghlan was born on Easter April 20, 1924, in Grand Haven, Mich. She died Friday, Oct. 4 2024, in Shoreline Wash.

There will be a family service at a time to be determined. She will be buried next to TJ in the Highland Cemetery, Glasgow, Mont.

100 years ago, a new car cost $265 and a new house $7,720, loaf of bread 9 cents and a gallon of gas 11 cents. She grew up during the Depression in Michigan with her extended family in close proximity. She was especially close to her younger sister, Frieda. They slept in the same bed until Flora was 18 years old and went off to college. They both respected the middle line.

Flora started college during WWII at Western Michigan, but graduated with honors in History (Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Illinois. During her time at Illinois, she passed the radio engineer First Class exam and helped run the college radio station WILL. After graduation she taught History and English in middle school until she met the most eligible bachelor in Kankakee, Ill., Tom Coghlan. They were married Sept. 25 1948, and went West the next day.

Flora & Tom settled in Glasgow. She had their first son, Mike, Dec. 10 1949, in one of the coldest winters ever recorded. They persevered and Fred and Jim were added to the family over the next few years and Anne a bit later.

Flora deeply valued education and community, serving as a Cub Scout and Brownie leader, member of PTA, AAUW and PEO. She was active in her church and Bible study groups, several book clubs, and an investment club (exclusively women.). In the years after their children had graduated from college, Flora and Tom continued to lend support to local organizations focused on community and education: the Children's Museum in Glasgow and the Glasgow High School Education Trust among many.

Flora loved to read, knit, play bridge, spend time with family and friends, and relax on the porch of their cabin on the lake at the Pines. She & TJ spent some wonderful winters at the Good Life Resort in Mesa, Ariz., where they had a park model near Joe and Margaret Offenbecher (Tom's sister).

She will be remembered by those who knew her as a kind, humble and empathetic person who was there for her family and especially her husband, Tom, until his death in 2008. They were married 60 years. Flora moved to the Seattle area in 2013.

A note about her age; Flora did not broadcast her age. She did live to be 100, and all the while she was wonderfully close to her younger sister Frieda, who still lives in Michigan. When her sister turned 80, and threw a big party, Flora finally had to own up to being 82. She would act surprised every time we told her she was 100 - even on that birthday. One time she told us, "I'll let you know when I get there."

Flora was preceded in death by her husband, TJ Coghlan and her son, Mike.

She helped six grandchildren, Jena & Thomas (Mike), John, Laura & Carolyn (Jim & Kay), and Matthew Coleman (Annie). She has 10 great grandchildren, all who she met and cared for by knitting wonderful clothes and blankets, except for the last born less than two weeks before she died, Anjali Flora Patel. Flora was told of this honor before she passed.

Gifts and remembrances can be made to the Valley County Community Pool: valcopool.com.