Carolee Coffin

Carolee Evelyn Winkelman Coffin, age 89, previously of Osceola, slipped away from us on March 22, 2022 at the Ridgewood Rehabilitation & Care Center in Seward, Nebraska, where she resided since July 2020.

Funeral services are 2:00 p.m. Monday, March 28, 2022, at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Osceola. Visitation is Sunday from 2:00-4:00 p.m. and will continue Monday from 1:00-2:00 p.m. at the church. Burial is in the Osceola Cemetery.

She was born August 11 ^th , 1932 to Louis Oscar Winkelman and Evelyn Marie (Ernst) Winkelman and was raised at the family farm southwest of Rising City.  Carolee was the oldest child followed by her three beautiful sisters, Lenore, Janice and Candice.

She attended grade school at Union Hill country school near her home. Every day, she and her two oldest sisters rode the farm work horse, Tom, to school, tied him up all day with no food or water, and then attempted to ride him home at a high rate of speed which resulted in the three girls bailing off even at the risk of bending their lunch pails.  Carolee graduated from Rising City High School in 1950.

Carolee married tall, dark and handsome Leonard Leroy Coffin on September 19 ^th , 1951 (Leonard's Birthday) at First English Lutheran Church, the same Church she was baptized at, in Rising City.

To this union, three children were born, Calvin, Mitchell and Lori, and a couple of them even turned out ok.

Leonard and Carolee lived in Rising City, Nebraska following their marriage, then Dixon, Missouri while Leonard was in the service, Bradshaw, Nebraska while Leonard managed the Co-op and Osceola where they were engaged in farming and Leonard had a radiator repair business.

Carolee worked at JC Penney in Columbus during and after high school, Farmers State Bank in Rising City, and was a stay at home Mom till her children were raised.  She became a contract cleaner and worked at REA in Stromsburg, Brian Beckner Law Offices in Osceola and the Post Offices in Shelby, Osceola, and Stromsburg for over 30 years till the age of 83.  She enjoyed the comradery at the Post Offices with both employees and customers, and was sometimes the resident shrink for some of the Postmasters.  She also made decorated cakes for over 30 years and we all dearly miss her wonderful creations and that sugar high.

She was a member of the St. Paul Lutheran Church in Osceola and a past member of the Polk County Historical Society.

Carolee was preceeded in death by her parents Louis and Evelyn Winkelman, her husband Leonard in 2001, her sister Janice Franzen in 1991, her husband's parents, Clarence and Rose (Thompson) Coffin, brother-in-laws Nick Rambour, Arlyn Franzen, Roy Coffin and Joe McKown and sister-in-laws Donna Coffin and Geraldine McKown.

She loved her family, (and chocolates and ice cream) and leaves behind to mourn her loss, Sisters: Lenore Rambour of Columbus and Candice (Monty) Sanley of Rising City,   Sons: Calvin (Elaine) Coffin of Columbus, Ne, Mitchell (Vicki) Coffin of Lincoln, NE, and daughter Lori (Mark) Schott of Osceola, NE.  Grandchildren: Lorren (Natasha) Coffin of York, Amber (Chris) McGreer of Malcolm, Cheston (Eva) Coffin of Lincoln, Zachary (Natalie) Coffin of Beatrice, Emily Coffin of Omaha, Carson (Erica) Schott of Seward, Melinn (Jesse) Williams of Osceola, Macy (Jacob) Miller of Seward, and Anna Schott (Jacob Sloup) of Lincoln, NE and 18 great-grandchildren.

In lieu of plants and flowers, memorials are suggested to St. Paul Lutheran Church, Osceola, NE.

Carolee always wanted her obituary to read, "I retired the day I died".