Josephine Weiner Coe

March 12, 1920 – February 22, 2015

Beloved wife, adored mother, and passionate friend, Josephine Austin Weiner Coe died peacefully on February 22, 2015 at home and surrounded by her family. Bobby, as she was known to all, was born in Denver, Colorado to Joseph Henry Weiner and Jessie Austin Weiner. Soon after, the family moved to Butte, Montana where her father, a manager for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, supplied tires to mining operations. When she was 11 years old, they moved to Seattle where she enrolled in the McGilvra School and where she met her future husband, Robert C. Coe. After graduating from Garfield High School, she attended the University of Washington and pledged Gamma Phi Beta. When her parents were relocated to Los Angeles she entered USC where she majored in fine arts and was homecoming queen as well as captain of the archery team. Her college career was cut short at the onset of World War II when she left USC to work at a gas mask factory.

On March 24,1942, she married her long time friend Bob Coe, then an Ensign in the US Navy. His navy career eventually took them to live in Key West and then to New York City. While in New York, she worked at the information desk at the Metropolitan Art Museum, a job she remembered with fondness and pride. She continued her interest in fine arts throughout her life, expressing herself in watercolors and sketching.

After the war, they moved to Boston, where Bob attended Harvard Medical School. While in Boston and subsequently in Concord MA they developed a circle of dear friends with whom she would stay in touch throughout her life. After Bob’s medical residency (and after deciding that the climate was more favorable in Seattle) they moved to Mercer Island in 1956 where they spent the next 55 years at their residence on North Mercer Way.

While Bob built his medical practice, Bobby raised their children and devoted her free time to the Seattle Art Museum where she was an active docent. She also found time to manage the family guest ranch in Cle Elum, WA. In the latter half of her life she and Bob spent summer months on their tugboat and winter months at their home on Maui.

Bob and Bobby took advantage of everything our beautiful region has to offer. Bobby sailed often, racing in the Wednesday evening Thunderbird series as well as many regional races. With her husband she climbed the 8 tallest peaks in the northwest. They cruised American and Canadian waters first in the sloop Sea Fever, then in the tug Gillcrest. Bobby was an elegant skier, and they traveled every year to ski in Europe or in the Rockies.

She was an ardent student of the arts, becoming a docent at the Seattle Art Museum where she served for 35 years. She loved to share art with others, and was a passionate chamber music listener. She read and memorized poetry, studied Jungian thought for many years, and every morning awoke with a passionate and inquiring thoughts about the day.

There was nothing she loved better than a crafts project. For decades she met with her Third Thursday Group – the “happy hands” – for bicycling or for a crafts project. These were the friends on whom she relied and to whom she turned for companionship, solace, and support.

Bobby is survived by her husband Bob Coe, and children Bruce Everett Coe (Kim) of Cle Elum WA, Virginia Austin Coe (Michael Garland) of San Francisco, and Matthew Daniel Coe (Pam) of Ellensburg, WA; grandchildren James Robert Coe (Lisa), Hannah Marie Coe, Catherine Coe Garland, Malcolm Michael Coe Garland, Kirsten Coe, Cooper Coe, Oliver Coe; and great granddaughter, Adreana Rose Coe. Also surviving are nieces Barbara Sheerer Morris (Larry) and Candace Coe as well as nephews James Austin Sheerer and Frantz Anderson Coe (Laurie) and their dear families.

Bobby Coe had a spark and a brightness that we will miss deeply. Her compassion, her courage, her devotion to her friends and family came to be the defining characteristics of her extraordinary life.

In keeping with her passion for art, memorial contributions my be sent in her name to the Development Office, Seattle Art Museum, 1300 1st Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101. Services will be held at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Mercer Island, on Saturday March 14th, 2015, at 2:00PM.