Blanche Beatrice Boyd Coats, 100, passed away Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014, in Houston.
She was born Aug. 9, 1914, on the farm south of Stockton, daughter of Rufo Monroe and Iza Edith Chaney Boyd. She and Ansel Coats were married June 30, 1945, in Houston.
She attended grade school at Mount Olive in Cedar County and graduated from Stockton High School in 1933. Following graduation, she worked in a private home and completed nurses training in 1939 at St. John’s School of Nursing in Springfield. She was a staff nurse at Burge Hospital in Springfield from 1939-41. She worked for the Missouri Public Health Service from 1941 to December 1945. She spent several months attending George Peabody College in Nashville, Tenn., taking courses in public health work.
She was a county health and school nurse in Webster County and Neosho before coming to Texas County as public health nurse. Through mutual friends, Ted and Lorene Scheets, she met Ansel Coats, who was home on furlough after four-and-a-half years overseas in military service.
They lived in Columbia, where she was a nursing supervisor while Ansel attended the University of Missouri. Following his graduation, they moved to the Coats family farm west of Houston, where they raised their three daughters.
In 1958, she helped establish the nursing program at Texas County Memorial Hospital before it opened. She worked the night shift at the hospital for many years while her daughters were growing up. Beginning in 1972, she served as director of nurses while Nola Day, Donald Babb and Harold Greer were administrators. She retired in March 1983.
She was an active member of the First Baptist Church in Houston, where she was a kindergarten Sunday School teacher for many years and a member of the WMU Bible Study group.
The Coats were active in Gideons International for many years.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; four sisters, Marie Campbell, Neva Taylor, Helen Petrovich and Eunice Krischel; and two brothers, Finis Boyd and Ray Boyd.
Survivors include three daughters, Linda Nell Gibson of Houston, Judy Annette Grider of Bolivar and Helen Mae Allen of Springfield; a sister, Ella Mae Rinaldi of Piqua, Ohio; five grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
Services are 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 18, at Houston First Baptist Church with the Rev. Kenneth Gibson officiating. Burial will be in Union Cemetery under the direction of Evans Funeral Home.
Memorials may be made to the Gideons. Online condolences may be sent to www.evansfh.com.
