COHEA, MAE

It was exactly in the mid-Roaring 20s; January 20, 1924 to be exact, that a teeny baby girl was born to Will Livengood and his wife Burlie Shrum Livengood in the small town of Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma. They found that their newborn-baby was actually so teeny that she could fit in (and sleep) in a shoebox.  She was the last of eight children born into the family where her beloved mother was an early-female Pentecostal preacher whilst Mae’s dad (Will) had already been a farmer, a wagon-driver, a door to door medicine salesman, carried mail and did numerous services for the town. By the time of her birth the family was quite prosperous with her mother actually founding a church or two (and holding revivals wherever) while her dad helped finance it all (and he gave housing and unending aid to poor Christians). After some discussion of names, the little baby was taught that she was named “Gertie Mae” (it wasn’t until she was over 40 that she discovered that the name on the birth-certificate simply read “Baby girl Livengood”). The two names were meant to honor several of her aunts, but as a wee child her unintentional pronunciation of it as “Dirty Mae” (and the attendant teasing that brought) made the name Gertie despicable to her… So early on this little girl chose to answer only to Mae, an early indicator of the independent, feisty character she was to manifest throughout life. She attended her first year of school in Duncan (after a cousin got the five-year old into first grade via a fib). About the age of five or six, as the world witnessed the collapse of the stock market, Mae’s dad (Will Livengood) suffered his own collapse and after first moving the family to Ardmore, Oklahoma, he essentially ran away. From that point on Mae (and several older siblings) were the children of a single-parent family for most all of her childhood. It was made even more hardscrabble when the family home burned to the ground, twice! These things were to become defining causes in little Mae’s formation, leading her to become both unbelievably decisive and resilient (but with kind and very generous heart underneath). From this time onward, values were clearly defined in her world. Mother Burlie was the personification of Jesus’ Goodness, kindness and character, while everything and everyone else had to measure up to that standard. Little Mae came to feel she had to protect her innocent mother at all times. Fascinatingly in this same time-frame was when Mae suddenly suffered a paralyzing illness, leaving her literally TOTALLY paralyzed from the neck down and completely bedfast for several months, with her mother meticulously bathing her in bed each day. Finally, she was prayed over and God’s Divine healing came rushing through her from head to toe, ending her months-long ordeal and restoring her to full health. By the time she was 10 Mae’s family had been uprooted again and plopped in the fishing hamlet of Palacios, Texas. While she attended school there, she and her slightly older siblings all got jobs to help support the family, with Mae (and her sister Inza) being hired by the shrimp cannery to behead, gut and clean the shrimp! Payment was a whopping 5 cents for every bucket of shrimp heads that they turned in. Mae completed grade school there in Palacios. By the school year of 1937-38 the family had trekked to Globe, Arizona where Mae attended all four years at Globe High School where she graduated, and then moved to Phoenix to attend Lamson Business College.  Interestingly enough she and her mother were some of the few people who could say that they lived in one of the vintage Victorian mansions (the J. T. Dennis house from 1887) that were still on Monroe at that time. After graduating from Lamson she then taught shorthand and typing there (she could type on manual typewriter at whirlwind speeds of 150 words per minute and take shorthand at similar dizzying speeds). She worked at Arizona Title, Phoenix Title, and briefly for a railroad in Portland, Oregon as a secretary. Mae met and married her sweetheart, William Vinal Cohea Sr. of Young, Arizona in 1948. However, she had no idea that moving to Young late that year was essentially like a giant leap back in time to 1890 (no electricity, no telephone, no television, no natural-gas, and water only when the wind turned the windmill, the only nod to the 20th Century was having a car). While her husband (Bill) ranched and taught school, Mae had babies and endured the painful solitude there with learning to can fruit (she won some awards for that), cook and bake from scratch, and make baby clothes. After nine years of “home on the range” (and the death of her beloved Mother) Mae persuaded hubby Bill to sell the ranch and move to Phoenix (a road in Young, Arizona is named for the family). They took what they got from the ranch and bought a large lot in an orange-grove and custom-built a house, plus bought a turquoise 1959 Mercury, and lastly the Silver Bell Trailer Park, which they owned and managed for 29 years (till late 1988).   She would always delight though in describing how she picked out the large lot in the orange grove and then insisted on every single feature in the house. After a near fatal-bout with hyperthyroidism in 1966 (from Downwind radiation) she went back to work as an executive secretary in 1967 at Salt River Project where she worked for about 20 years (with much of it for J.J. Finnerty). Many years later, even with all the good works and assistance Mae was to perform during her very long lifetime, she always felt somewhat imperfect compared to her mother’s example. Yet, to those in her family, she was to become that singular stalwart example of what manifest good works are to be likened unto. She was our confidant, advisor, our wake-up call, and occasionally, a loan officer (“the First National Bank of Little Mae”). She was tough, but even more relentless in her pursuits. Our father realized early on what an asset he had, and gave up management of finances to little Mae, which somehow indicates brilliance on his part. Sleeping but little, gathering the best advisors, and constantly re-evaluating her situation and options, Mae moved ahead to manage whatever life offered to throw at her family. Our uncle Cliff was heard to say that if Mae fell into an outhouse, she would somehow manage to emerge smelling like a rose. An avid reader and collector of books (literally thousands), she loved foreign vacations, beautiful crystal and china, beautiful flowers, funny movies and TV shows, and talking and listening at great length. She was always possessed of an uncommonly keen mind, terrific memory and sharp wit (woe to those who crossed wits with her). She remained to the end intent on keeping herself looking as young as possible with various skin lotions, her makeup subtly applied, her hair always “colored” and permed, and in later years with all her nails done in an entrancing pink and glitter polish (so many compliments on that!). To Mae, everything was family or Jesus!  She loved and taught and expected the best out of each family member, and kept track of family and friends via extensive telephone conversations every day. She often quoted her mother’s many sayings with one of them being, “May we be one unbroken family round the great white throne (of God) in heaven.”  She’s expecting us all to join her there some day. She was preceded in death by her sweetheart-husband of 43 years, W. V. (Bill) Cohea Sr.; parents, Burlie and Will Livengood and all her brothers, Frank, Berl, Roy, Doyl, and Billy Livengood and sisters Inza Beth Frazee Mace and Floy Taylor, sisters-in-law Opal Livengood and Thalia Livengood, and Marie Livengood Bozzola, and brothers-in-law Richard Taylor, James Frazee, Charles “Chick” Mace and also by almost all of her nearly 100 cousins and her best friend Lois May Davey. Mae leaves behind her 3 beloved children: Bill (Debbie) Cohea; Burla (Bob) Whitmarsh; and Tim Cohea (fiancee Jessica), as well as 5 grandchildren: Heather (Jesse) DiMartino, Jarrod (Rosette) Cohea, James (Michelle) Cohea, Aimee Cohea and Bobby Whitmarsh and 12 great grandchildren: Ali, Michael, Caleb and Bella DiMartino; Lya, Cassey, JR, Cristabelle, Willie, Kaelie, Kayah, and Xander Cohea, as well as many extended family. On March 9, 2016, MAE COHEA went to be with sweet Jesus, after 92 years of living and loving her family, but she did not leave this Earth happily or willingly… She loved to quote her mother that “Heaven is my home, but I’m not homesick”. She created her own favorite saying that “I’m not looking for the undertaker, I’m looking for the UPPERTAKER” (Jesus and the Rapture of the church). Viewing will be from 5:00 – 8:00 PM, Friday, March 18, 2016 at Whitney & Murphy Funeral Home, 4800 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. Funeral Service will take place at 11:00 AM, Saturday, March 19, 2016 at Parkway Community Church of God, 1751 E. Maryland Avenue, Phoenix. A verse from the Robert Muncsh book I’ll Love You Forever. “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby (mommy) you’ll be.” (I’ll see you soon my precious Elf)