Martha Lou Riddle Coffey Obituary - Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

She was born September 15, 1939, in Italy, Texas, the second oldest of eight siblings. Coffey came to Lubbock for business school and met her future husband, Joe Coffey, on a blind date during her college years. The two married August 25, 1957, and stayed married 59 years until his death in 2017.

After Lubbock, the couple built their life in Lamesa. Martha worked as executive assistant in Joe's CPA practice, standing beside him through decades of the small business. She became a fixture at First Baptist Church Lamesa, teaching Sunday school for years and hosting showers for neighbors and friends. She also stayed active with the 48 Delphians and the Opti-Mrs Club of Lamesa, groups that shaped much of her social life outside the church.

For people who knew her in Lamesa, Martha represented a kind of steady, small-town presence that's harder to find now. Students she taught in Sunday school grew into adults while she kept showing up, decade after decade, to club meetings and church functions. Her path started in Lubbock classrooms and ended in a Lamesa community she helped hold together for most of her life.