Obituary of Carolyn Garrick Coggin

Carolyn Garrick Coggin, passed away on Tuesday, April 21, 2020.Carolyn was born December 16, 1921 in Thomasville, Alabama, the oldest of three children of Ruth Naomi and William Leonard Garrick. Carolyn was energetic and vivacious, “the life of the party” – a cheerleader, student body president, and valedictorian. Attending Howard College (now Samford University) as a young woman during WWII, she met James Earl Coggin. They married on September 1, 1943 in Thomasville, and immediately left for Fort Worth for James to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and for Carolyn to attend Texas Wesleyan College. He ultimately completed his M.Div. and Th.D. degrees while she completed her B.A. and a Master’s of Religious Education from Southwestern.Their first daughter, Olivia Ruth, was born in Fort Worth (December 1945). Pastoral calls then took them to Memphis, Tennessee, where Gloria Lyn (November 1949) and Rebekah Jean (December 1951) were born, and then to Texarkana, Texas.In 1959 they returned to Fort Worth, where James pastored Travis Avenue Baptist Church for 24 years until his retirement in 1983.Carolyn received awards and recognition from Samford University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the Southern Baptist Convention, and she was known as an exceptional Bible teacher. But most of all she was dearly loved by their church families as an iconic pastor’s wife, full of love, grace, and caring concern. To know her was to know an ideal Proverbs 31 woman.Her advice to her grandchildren, and all of us, was “Live each day in light of the salvation (you) have received through (our) Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”Survivors: Daughters, Olivia Ruth Coggin Eudaly and husband Richard, Gloria Lyn Coggin McDonald and Rebekah Jean Coggin Hyde; grandchildren, Autumn Dawn Eudaly Galbreath and husband David, Dustyn Eudally and wife Julie, Daryn Eudaly and wife Amy, Debra Olivia Eudaly DeSario and husband John, Dominique Eudaly Jordan and husband Jeff, Jon Marc McDonald, Garrick Grant McDonald, and Hayden Wayne Hyde and wife Lauren; great-grandchildren, Coggin, Eleanor and Norah Galbreath, Elizabeth, Mary Ellen, William, and Katherine Eudaly, Jake, Nick, Emily and Zack Eudaly, Marshall, Lucy and Bowen DeSario, Jeffrey, Wells, Henry and Caroline Jordan, and Reese and Hampton Hyde; all of whom will miss their Gran more than words can express.