Willie Jean Coffie

Willie Jean Coffie was born on August 10, 1943 in Blackshear, Georgia, and raised in Miami, Florida by Ruby Douglas. She passed peacefully on May 22, 2026 at the age of 82, surrounded by the family she devoted her life to building.

A proud graduate of Mays Senior High School, she went on to earn her certification as a Certified Nursing Assistant and began her career caring for others at Mercy Hospital. Her calling to care didn't stop there — she went on to build a private duty nursing practice and later founded her own assisted living facility, Coffie Comfort Center, where she gave families the same dignity and warmth she gave her own. She was also a real estate investor who quietly built generational stability for her family through the homes and properties she stewarded.

Beyond her work, Willie Jean poured herself into her community. She served as PTA president, led local boys as a Cub Scout leader, and volunteered with the Foster Parent Association — opening her heart and her home to children who needed both. Wherever there was a need, she showed up.

For more than 60 years, Willie Jean was a pillar of the Goulds Church of the Nazarene. She was part of the original congregation that helped build the church from the ground up — and when Hurricane Andrew devastated the building in 1992, she was right there again, helping to rebuild it brick by brick alongside her church family. She served faithfully as church secretary, Sunday school teacher, and choir leader for most of her tenure, and she quietly carried the work of the grief ministry — visiting the sick and shut-in, sitting with the grieving, and bringing the love of Christ to people in their hardest hours. The church was not just where she worshipped — it was her life's work, her calling, and her second home.

Willie Jean carried that same joy out into the world. She loved to travel — for leisure and for church conferences — and her passport told the story: she walked the streets of Germany, Japan, and China; soaked in the beaches of Hawaii; and made her way across nearly every state in the country. Wherever she went, she brought her family stories back home and her faith out into the world.

She made a home in Goulds, Florida that became the center of gravity for everyone who knew her — children, grandchildren, neighbors, and church family alike. To her children she was Mom and Mother, to those closest to her she was Jeanie, to her church family she was Sister Coffie, to her grandchildren she was Nanny and Grandma, to the Spanish-speaking children she helped raise she was Abuela — and to all of them, she was home. Her presence was steady, her love was unconditional, and her faith was the quiet strength behind everything she did.

Survived By

Her loving husband of 65 years, Earl M. Coffie Sr.; her daughter Cynthia Hughes; her sons Earl Coffie Jr. (Anna), Emmanuel Coffie, and Eric Coffie; her adopted son Daniel Coffie; her siblings, Jon Spoon (Jonelle) and Mary Conway; her sisters-in-law, Alma McCray, Earlene Tucker, Louann Coffie, and Eulamae Coffie; her grandchildren — Deven Coffie (Irene), Jasmin Coffie, Emmanuel Coffie Jr. (Manny), Branden Coffie, Elianny Duarte Coffie, Langston Coffie Hughes, Gabriela Coffie Hughes, and Galata Coffie Montero; her great-grandchildren Micah and Angel; and a wide circle of family and friends who feel her absence deeply.

Preceded in Death By

The woman who raised her, Ruby Douglas; her siblings Ann Spoon Phelts, Simon Spoon, Samuel Tucker, Arthur Spoon, and Loistene Jiles; and her beloved grandson Freddie Jackson.

She was loved completely.