Anne Coakley
d. August 30, 2011
Memorial Mass for Therese Anne Coakley, 79, Delaware, formerly of Canton will be held on Saturday September 3, 2011 at 12:30pm at St. Mary's Church, Canton with Rev. Douglas Lucia, celebrating. Anne died on August 30, 2011in Salisbury, MD after a brief hospitalization.
Friends may call at the O'Leary Funeral Home, Park Street, on Friday, September 2, 2011 from 7-9pm.
Ms. Coakley was born February 14, 1932 in Canton, NY to John and Mary Elizabeth Riley Coakley. She graduated with a nursing degree from the College of St. Rose in Albany, NY in 1954. She received a Certificate in Public Health Nursing in 1957 from the University of Minnesota and a Masters in Public Health in 1962, also from the University of Minnesota.
From 1962 - 1964 she was a public health district nursing supervisor in three southern NY counties. From 1958 - 1961 she served as a public health nurse for Westchester County, NY.
In 1965 through 1969 she attained the rank of Commander in the Public Health Service and was on loan to the Agency for International Development (AID) in Vietnam, serving first as a nurse educator for student nurses in Vietnam and then as a Regional Nurse Advisor of American and Free World Assistance Teams to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health. This entailed learning and speaking Vietnamese.
Ms. Coakley retired as a Nursing Supervisor in the Montgomery County Health Department.
After retirement she attended Trinity College in Washington, DC, studying to become a Eucharistic Minister. She was a daily Communicant and Eucharistic Minister in both Wheaton, MD and Bethany Beach, DE, her home since 2000.
Survivors include her sister Mary Farris of Gainesville, FL, many beloved nieces and nephews, as well as her dear friend, Diane Wheeler. She was predeceased by her brothers John and Robert Coakley and her sister Helen Taylor.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be forwarded to the Tunnell Cancer Center at Beebe Medical Center, 424 Savannah Rd, Lewes, DE 19958 or Delaware Hospice, 600 N. Dupont Hwy, Georgetown, DE 19947.