Edna Bertha (Weland) Coffinger

Edna Bertha Coffinger of Paw Paw, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, neighbor, and friend, passed away peacefully October 4, 2021 of Congestive Heart Failure at age 91.

She was born February 13, 1930, in the family home at 3831 S. Honore St. in Chicago, daughter of Charles Weland and Lena Marie (Dahms) Weland. The family moved to Glendale, MI when she was 14, and on July 5, 1947 she married the love of her life, Orrin J. Coffinger, who survives.

She is also survived by her two sons, Ronald (Bonnie) Coffinger and Randy (Ronda) Coffinger, four grandchildren: Brad (Susan) Coffinger, Chris (Kristina) Coffinger, PJ (Maki) Chmiel, and Amy Beam, and great-grandchildren Caitlin (Bill) Heckart, Ali Coffinger, and Landen Doneruse. She was preceded in death by her sisters Myrtle (Don) Beiter and Hazel (Bill) Buskirk, and grandson Eric Beam.

Edna was an excellent cook and baker (famous for her pies), she sewed most of her own clothes, grew a large garden and preserved it by canning and freezing, butchered many deer, and caught, cleaned and fried countless fish from Lake Michigan and local lakes.

She worked many jobs, from corn detasseling to Standard Coil, seasonal work in canning factories, and even making candy-apples. She also volunteered to work local elections in Arlington Twp for 30 years, but her favorite work was unpaid: babysitting, sometimes "raising" several generations of kids from the same neighboring families.

She enjoyed fishing and camping trips to northern MI at Platte Bay and Monocle Lake, visits with friends in Maine, and a trip of a lifetime with Orrin in 1992 when they drove their motorhome to Alaska and back, taking in the beautiful mountain scenery and wildlife all the way.

A country girl at heart, she liked Patsy Cline, Eddy Arnold, Little House on the Prairie, and Andy Griffith. She was resourceful, funny and thrifty. A child of the Depression, her advice to all was to spend less and save more!

Services will be held at Adams Funeral Home, 502 West Michigan Ave., Paw Paw on Tuesday October 12, with visitation from 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., a service by pastor Glen Cowles will begin at 1:00 with burial at Hill Cemetery in Lawrence to follow.