http://www.cooganresearchgroup.com/crg/index.htm 12 August 2011 Obituary of Grace V. Coogan __________________________________________________________________ (extracted from "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" [GA], 04 AUG 2011): GRACE COOGAN COOGAN, Grace GRACE V. COOGAN Grace V. Coogan passed at the age of 103 in Atlanta on July 28, 2011. Formerly of Milton and Hull, MA, she was the wife of the late John R. Coogan who passed in 1970. Born January 17, 1908, Grace was raised and educated in Boston, MA where she earned her B.S. and M.Ed. degrees, plus other graduate credits. She taught in the Boston area for 20 years; retiring from Robert F. Crowley Elementary School in Avon, MA as a third-grade teacher in 1975. She was a former member of the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the National Education Association. During World War II, she was offered an Ensign's rank by the U.S. Navy. As much as she wished to join the Navy, she felt her daughter was too young to leave. Still wanting to have a part in the defense of her country, she went to work as a Rate Setter for the shipbuilders at Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, MA. Grace also worked for 13 years as a Lab Technician for The Carter Ink Co. in Cambridge, MA. Known to her family and friends as "Amazing Grace", she leaves her daughter, Barbara Mae Campbell Foley and son-in-law Robert James Foley of Alpharetta, GA; five grand- children (Susan F. Weatherly and husband Barry of Jasper, GA, Robert S. Foley and wife Danette, Patricia F. Martin and husband Chuck, Peter A. Foley and wife Sharon, all of Marietta, GA; and David P. Foley of Alpharetta, GA); 12 great-grandchildren; and six great-great-grandchildren. She was a 36-year member of Embry Hills United Methodist Church. The family will celebrate her life and greet friends at Embry Hills UMC, 3304 Henderson Mill Rd., Atlanta, GA on Monday, August 8, 2011. Services will be held in The Chapel at 1PM with a reception to follow. Interment will be in the family plot in Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, MA at a later date. In lieu of flowers, kindly consider a donation to the church. Arrangements by Floral Hills Funeral Home. Condolences can be left at www.floralhillsfuneral.com [photo] __________________________________________________________________ (extracted from "Boston Globe" [MA], 04 AUG 2011): GRACE V. COOGAN COOGAN, Grace V. Passed at the age of 103, in Atlanta, GA, on July 28, 2011, formerly of Milton and Hull, MA. She was the wife of the late John R. Coogan who passed in 1970. Born January 17, 1908, Grace was raised and educated in Boston, MA where she earned her B.S. and M.Ed. degrees, plus other graduate credits. She taught in the Boston area for 20 years; retiring from Robert F. Crowley Elementary School in Avon, MA as a third grade teacher in 1975. She was a former member of the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the National Education Association. During World War II, she was offered an Ensign's rank by the U.S. Navy. As much as she wished to join the Navy, she felt her daughter was too young to leave. Still wanting to have a part in the defense of her country, she went to work as a Rate Setter for the shipbuilders at Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, MA. Grace also worked for 13 years as a Lab Technician for The Carter Ink Co. in Cambridge, MA. Known to her family and friends as "Amazing Grace", she leaves her daughter, Barbara Mae Campbell Foley and son in law Robert James Foley of Alpharetta, GA; five grandchildren (Susan F. Weatherly and husband Barry of Jasper, GA, Robert S. Foley and wife Danette, Patricia F. Martin and husband Chuck, Peter A. Foley and wife Sharon, all of Marietta, GA; and David P. Foley of Alpharetta, GA); 12 great grandchildren; and six great great grandchildren. She was a 36 year member of Embry Hills United Methodist Church. The family will celebrate her life and greet friends at Embry Hills UMC, 3304 Henderson Mill Rd., Atlanta, GA on Monday, August 8, 2011. Services will be held in The Chapel at 1PM with a reception to follow. Interment will be in the family plot in Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, MA at a later date. In lieu of flowers, kindly consider a donation to the church. Arrangements by Floral Hills Funeral Home. Condolences can be left at www.floralhillsfuneral.com [photo] __________________________________________________________________ (extracted from "Boston Globe" [MA], 08 AUG 2011): GRACE COOGAN, 103, STAYED LIVELY AS A RETIREE IN GEORGIA Friends and family called her “Amazing Grace." Retired Avon schoolteacher Grace V. Coogan wore high heels well into her 90s, still smoked a cigarette every day with her cup of coffee, and lived to be 103. A former resident of Milton and Hull, she retired to Chamblee, Ga., to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren, and she cut quite a figure in a city where the median age is 28. She wore her favorite leopard prints, spoke with a Boston accent, and was still driving her white Cadillac until an accident at age 95 left her with no insurer. Deep in the heart of Atlanta Braves territory, Mrs. Coogan kept up with the Boston Red Sox, drank rum and Coke, and once danced on the bar at a local club, according to her daughter, Barbara Mae of Alpharetta, Ga. “She packed a lot of living in 103 years," said her grandson Peter A. Foley of Marietta, Ga. “She was so conversant and fluent in the language of sports. She loved the Red Sox and hated the Yankees, just like every Bostonian is willed to do." Mrs. Coogan died at her home on July 28, a month after breaking her ankle in a fall and becoming bed-ridden. Born Grace V. Kopple on Jan. 17, 1908, in Boston, Mrs. Coogan was the eldest daughter of Frederick, a police officer, and Mae. Her mother died at age 23 from tuberculosis, when Grace was 4 years old and her sister 2. They were raised mostly by their grandmother, according to the family. She earned her undergraduate degree in education in 1929 from Teachers College in Boston. Her first marriage, to George Campbell, ended soon after the birth of their daughter, Barbara. When World War II broke out, the divorced mother longed to join the Navy but did not want to leave her daughter, she told her family. She went to work in the offices of shipbuilders at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy instead. “I was a teenager when she worked there, and she really enjoyed it," said Barbara. “It was doing something for her country, she felt." After the war, she worked for more than a decade as a lab technician for the Carter Ink Co. in Cambridge and also earned her master’s degree in teaching. She taught elementary school in Avon for 20 years, teaching mostly third-graders. She retired from the Robert F. Crowley Elementary School in Avon in 1975. She remarried in 1961, after friends introduced her to John R. “Jack" Coogan, a draftsman for Stone & Webster of Boston. He died of cancer in 1970 at age 53. “Theirs was a love affair," said grandson Peter, recalling many Thanksgiving dinners when Jack donned a white apron and carved the turkey. “I know Nana thought of him every day in the 41 years since he passed. Bringing up his name always brought a smile to Nana’s face." Mrs. Coogan made friends easily and maintained a wide social circle, playing bridge regularly into her 90s, according to her family. “Her social life was very important to her. She had lots of friends, and she loved to tell jokes," her daughter said. For several decades, Mrs. Coogan had a cottage in Hull, the locus of many family memories. Foley recalled how the adults played endless hands of cribbage there, while he and his siblings struggled to behave so that Nana would take them to Paragon Park, the amusement park on Nantasket Beach. The park was closed in 1984. http://articles.boston.com/2011-08-08/bostonglobe/29865057_1_eldest-daughter-lab-technician-median-age/2 __________________________________________________________________