Macon Daily Telegraph
Bibb County, Georgia
23 October 1918
DEATHS AND FUNERALS...
...LIEUT. JOHN A. COFFEE
MARSHALLVILLE, Oct 22 -- Lieut. John A. Coffee, who was killed in an aeroplane accident near Aberdeen, Miss., last Friday, was buried here this morning with full military honors. Two aviators from Souther Field flew over on the grave of the young man.
The funeral service was conducted from the home of the parents of the deceased, Mr. and Mrs. J. Henry Coffee, Rev. T. L. Darley and Mrs. C. E. Barron officiating. During the service a male quartet sang "Nearer My God to Thee," "Star Spangled Banner" and "Gathering Home." The pallbearers were John T. Lee, Jr., of Rochelle; E. I. Holmes, of Elko; Wallace Peavy, of Byron; T. J. Whitfield, of Hawkinsville; Dr. H. H. Johnson, of Macon, and Hamilton McKenzie, of Marshallville.
Lieutenant McMillan accompanied the remains from Aberdeen. Lieutenants E. P. Potts, E. M. Rogers and J. M. Johnson, with a squad of cadets, came from Souther Field, near Americus, and buried the body with military honors.
There was probably no more popular young man here than Lieutenant Coffee. He was the first volunteer to enlist from this place, joining the old First Georgia in June, 1916, serving at the Mexican border. He returned and served as a member of the 118th Field Artillery band at Camp Wheeler until last February, when, on his twenty-first birthday, he was sent to the aviation school at Austin, Texas. He received his commission as an aviator at Dayton, Ohio, in July, 1918. He was later made an instructor in advanced flying.
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