Another World War I era veteran dies

One of last remaining U.S. World War I veterans dies

NORTH BALTIMORE, Ohio (AP) — The last World War One veteran in Ohio — and one of three known remaining U.S. veterans from World War I — has died.

J. Russell Coffey died Thursday at the age of 109, according to a funeral home.

The obituary released by Smith-Crates Funeral Home in North Baltimore, about 35 miles south of Toledo, did not say where Coffey died or what he died of. He had been living in the Blakely Care Center, a nursing home.

Coffey, born Sept. 1, 1898, didn’t see action overseas. He enlisted in the Army while he was a student at Ohio State University in October 1918, a month before the Allied powers and Germany signed a cease-fire agreement.

Coffey played semipro baseball, earned a doctorate in education from New York University, taught in high school and college and raised a family.

He drove his car until he was 104. He lived on his own until three years ago.

The other known surviving American soldiers are Frank Buckles, 106, of Charles Town, W.Va., and Harry Landis, of Sun City Center, Fla., according to the Veterans Affairs Department.

Funeral services for Coffey will be held Saturday, according to the funeral home.

The town where I grew up had several World War I-era veterans, although I don't know how many actually served overseas in the war itself.

News stories like this make you pause and reflect on the various things from your childhood that you have lost. Such as two of the three houses I live in during my youth are gone. So is a barn that my father owned. And all my ancestors.

That last one was the hardest. My brother the geneaologist says that most people don't become interested in their family backgrounds until they are in their 50s, and by then it's too late. Most of the people with the knowledge they seek are gone. I'm glad that in 1987 I took my mother on a trip to visit her sister. I took my camera and tape recorder to ask my aunt about growing up on an Ohio River junk boat (similar to a shanty boat, but with a commercial aspect) and to record her playing "Beautiful Dreamer" on an organ my grandparents bought then they married in 1900. The organ was powered by two foot pedals.

Anyway, I hope there is apporpriate note made when the last World War I veteran passes.