| Roger Lee Coffey was born on 26 January 1946 in Augusta Co., VA.42554 Roger died in Lutz, Hillsborough Co., FL on 9 June 1995 and was buried at Spring Hill Cemetery in Lynchburg, Independent City, VA in June 1995 .42555,42556 Obituary, The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, VA, Tue., Jun. 13, 1995 ROGER COFFEY DIES AT 49 RAN FOR 8 POLITICAL POSTS A peace activist and perennial Richmond-area candidate has died of a heart attack in Florida. Roger L. Coffey of Lutz, Fla., formerly of Richmond and Lynchburg, died Friday at the age of 49. During the time he was in Richmond, from 1977 to 1990, he ran for and lost eight different political posts. Mr. Coffey challenged Republican Rep. Thomas J. Bliley Jr. for the 3rd District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1984 and he sought Del. Joseph B. Benedetti's 68th District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1985. His last local candidacy was a 1990 four-way race for the 2nd District City Council seat. He lost by a landslide. Mr. Coffey, who described himself as a liberal Democrat, never won a party nomination, so he ran as an independent. He was a part-time pizza deliveryman and 60s-style crusader. The former United Methodist pastor was in favor of prison reform, a freeze on nuclear weapons and protection of Virginia's environment. "The vast majority of people here in Richmond are conservative or moderate," Mr. Coffey said in a 1990 interview shortly before he moved to Florida. "For that reason, I was probably looked on as Jesse Jackson was when he ran for president -- as unelectable." In that same interview, Mr. Coffey said he hoped he'd at least be remembered here as proving "a candidate from a working-class background with little money can run and be viewed as a viable candidate -- that a candidate doesn't necessarily have to be one of the elite." He had served as pastor at several churches in Southhampton County, Suffolk, Mechanicsville and Cartersville. He also sold insurance with the Independent Life and Accident Insurance Co. of Jacksonville, Fla. In addition, Mr. Coffey taught at Powhatan Correctional Center and was a former chaplain at Southhampton Correctional Center. He is survived by his father, Marshall B. Coffey of Lynchburg; and a brother, Phillip W. Coffey of Midlothian. His funeral will be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday in Lynchburg with burial afterwards at Spring Hill Cemetery. The family asks that memorial contributions be made to the American Heart Association or to Park View United Methodist Church in Lynchburg. |