Wanda Coats

We lost our dear mother, Wanda Coats, on Saturday, September 16th, 2023.  As hard as it is to say goodbye to someone we love so deeply, we as a family rejoice in the fact that she is now walking streets of gold holding the hand (or back belt loop) of Alfred, her beloved husband of 65 years.  She passed peacefully surrounded by her family and will be missed more than mortalwords can express.

Wanda lived most of her life in Gause, TX and loved the people of this community like family.  And if you knew Wanda, you knew that family was everything to her.  She had a heart bigger than Texas and found great joy in helping others.  While she had many wonderful qualities, her giving heart was one of the things we loved most about her.  Every year at Christmas, she collected donations from the people of Gause and it became a Coatsfamily tradition to shop and wrap presents for the children of the town who weren’t as blessed as others.  We all also loved to cook with her, especially on Sundays when everyone gathered at her house for lunch after Church.  Many of her recipes were handwritten by her mother and no matter how hard we tried, no one could make a dish as well as either of them.

Wanda left Gause in 1958 to marry a West Texas boy, but both she and Alfred returned only a few years later to continue the legacy of her father at Coats Grocery and build a life in her beloved town.  And what a life they built!  Family was absolutely Wanda’s greatest accomplishment and she loved them fiercely.  If anyone messed with one of hers, they had better be ready to take a step back.  She was the best Granny, aka Grocery Store Granny, and this family was blessed to call her ours.

Granny was preceded in death just 4 months ago by her husband, Alfred Coats.  She leaves behind 3 children; daughter Sherri and husband James Rasco, son Ray Coats and wife Paula, and son Kevin Coats and wife Lori, 10 grandchildren, 20 great grandchildren, and 3 great great-grandchildren.  She will also be missed by numerous nieces, nephews, family, and one sister-in-law that she loved as much as her own.

Services for Wanda will be held at the Gause Baptist Church on Tuesday, September 19th, 2023, at 11:00 am.  Final goodbyes and burial will immediately follow at the Gause Cemetery.