Ann McGuire Coker

Harriot Ann Coker
Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, passed away peacefully at
home on October 9, 2026 at the age of 98 after a long and happy life.
Harriot Ann McGuire was born May 12, 1928 in Nashville, Tennessee to Donald D.
McGuire and Ruth Willard Crew. She had a brother, David, who predeceased her.
She is survived by her five children: John L. Coker III (Linda) of Orlando, FL; Judge Mary
Day Coker of Gainesville, FL; Robert E. Coker (Menla) of Jensen Beach, FL; Donald A.
Coker (Kimberly) of Tallahassee, FL; William W. Coker (Tatiana) of Bradenton, FL; eleven
grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; one niece (Beth) and two nephews (David and
Doug).

When she was growing up, Ann and her family lived for a while in Tennessee, Indiana,
Illinois, and Ohio. Her father was an engineer, and he had to relocate regularly for work.
She was the same age as Shirley Temple and she had a Shirley Temple doll and a set of
the Dionne Quintuplets dolls. She liked Betty Boop, Walt Disney cartoons, and cats.
She spent some summers with her grandparents on their family farm, where she helped
with the gardening, and the chickens, and canning fruits and vegetables.
When she was young, Ann’s mother took her to meet prominent authors and artists who
were on U.S. book tours, such as Margaret Mitchell and Salvidor Dali. She also saw
performances of the great symphonic orchestras of the day.

Her mother was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), the
Colonial Dames, and the Mayflower Society. From an early age, Ann understood that
her family placed a good deal of importance on their genealogy and history. As a member of the DAR, she worked hard for decades, investigating and documenting her many ancestors, going back hundreds of years.

Ann attended Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated in 1950, with a
B.A., in Early Childhood Development. She was on the student entertainment committee
that was responsible for bringing well-known people to give presentations. Twice, she
arranged for poet Robert Frost to visit her school, and on one occasion he dedicated the
reading of a poem to her.

While in college, she met John L. Coker, Jr. (b. 1927, Charlotte, NC) who was attending
Emory University in Atlanta (graduated in 1949). They fell in love and became engaged.
After graduation, John and Ann were married on August 16, 1950 in Wooster, Ohio.
The newlyweds moved to Philadelphia after John was accepted at the University of
Pennsylvania’s School of Dentistry. Following graduation, John continued in the same
school’s Oral Surgery program, which he completed in 1954. In Philadelphia, they had two children: John L. Coker III (b. 1953), and Mary Day Coker (b. 1955). In 1956, the family moved to Atlanta, Georgia to work in the field of dentistry and be near to John’s parents. The family relocated to Jacksonville, Florida (1957) to work in a dentistry practice. In Jacksonville, Robert Edward Coker was born (b. 1958).

The family moved to Gainesville, Florida (1959) to set up a practice as the first Oral
Surgeon in Alachua County. In Gainesville, the family continued to grow: Donald A.
Coker (b. 1960), David B. Coker (b. 1960, d. 1960), and William W. Coker (b. 1961).
The Coker Family belonged to the First United Methodist Church in Gainesville, and
enjoyed Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, Youth Fellowship, Scouts, and music.
Ann volunteered in her children’s classes at school (field trips, fund-raising, chaperone).
Whenever a new family moved into the neighborhood, Mom would always bake a cake
and take the kids to meet their new neighbors.

She supported her children’s activities in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. She encouraged
piano lessons, dance, theater, sports, paying for them and providing transportation.
She enjoyed going to the family’s fish camp (the Seven Seas) on the Suwannee River.
In the late-1950s, Mom joined many other young mothers (pushing babies in carriages)
walking door-to-door, collecting money (the March of Dimes) to help fight birth defects.
She was an accomplished seamstress, and enjoyed creating and repairing clothes, and
making special school outfits, Halloween costumes, and other articles of clothing.
Ann was an excellent cook. She could make anything from what she had in her pantry.
She often followed old-fashioned family recipes that had been passed down through the
generations. It is also from her kitchen that her children first learned about foods from
other parts of the world. She made three meals a day, with brown bag lunches for school, homemade birthday cakes for each child, and treats for the holidays.
She was active in her community. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star.
She was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Gainesville. She belonged to
the Junior League, the Gainesville Women’s Club, and the Women’s Hospital Auxiliary.
She could play the piano and sing. She taught her kids multiplication and division tables.
Dr. and Mrs. Coker took their children to performances of classical symphonic music,
theater, ballet, films, and lectures. They were Gator boosters, and attended football and
basketball games. Ann enjoyed playing Bridge and Cribbage with friends and family.
In 1977, the family built a ranch style house in the pine woods near Alachua, FL, where
they enjoyed the quiet life of a family living in the country on a real working farm with
crops and animals. She embraced this new chapter in her family’s life.
Ann encouraged her children to read. There were always many books and magazines in
their home and she took her children to the library every week during the summers.
She helped teach her kids how to cook, sew, drive a car, wash clothes, live on a budget,
operate a household, and take care of themselves.

After her children were grown, Ann enjoyed gardening, travel, genealogy, and making
entries in her annual country diaries. Starting in 1950, for a period of sixty years she took family pictures and organized them into annual photo albums. She knitted a beautiful oversize Christmas stocking for each of her children after they were born, and then made another one years later for each of their spouses. She had some of her parents’ and grandparents’ childhood toys. Ann saved the dolls that she had owned as a girl, and displayed them in a glass case for everyone to enjoy. She was a good person. Honest, faithful, dependable, and loving. Someone to look up to. She provided a center for the family; home was where Mom (and Dad) were. You could always go home.

In August 2025, Ann and John Coker celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary with their children at a big party. A few months later, Dr. Coker died at the age of 98 ½ years.
She was predeceased by her husband, father, mother, only brother, and twin son, David.