Ellen Wagner

    Ellen Douglas Coffey Wagner (May 21, 1931- October 4, 2015) of Highland, Maryland died on Sunday, October 4, 2015.  She was the wife of Robert D. Wagner and mother of William J. Wagner and David D. Wagner.  She was the mother-in-law of Lisa (Coleman) Wagner and grandmother of grandson Ian Johnson and grandaughter Sydney Wagner.  She was also survived by her brothers Donald Coffey and Wallace Coffey and sister Kerry Coffey Hale.  Her nieces include Kathy Coffey Craighead, Carol Coffey Burns and Janet Coffey Godfrey.

Ellen was born in Bristol, Virginia in 1931, residing on both sides of the Virginia-Tennessee line, principally on Spruce Street in Bristol, Tennessee.  She graduated from Tennessee High School in 1949 and then majored in English at King College (now King University).  After college, she spent a summer in Richmond, Virginia as a copy reader for a Methodist publishing house, then returned to Bristol to work at State Street Methodist Church.  She left her job there to attend graduate school in recreational leadership at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, working part time at the state mental hospital there.  In 1959, she moved to Washington DC to take a job at the YWCA.  She met Robert there in 1960 and the two were married on October 21, 1961.  They moved to Takoma Park, Maryland and lived there from late 1961 to late 1963, then moved to Highland, Maryland.  During her fifty-two year residence there, she raised her two sons, volunteered as president of the PTA, and worked as the church school co-ordinator for St. John's United Methodist Church and as the teacher's secretary at Clarksville Middle School.  She also spent many weekends and days helping Bob run a small orchard in Monroe, Virginia, from 1978 until 2004.  She played alto saxophone in her high school band and enjoyed playing the piano.  She enjoyed her travels around the United States, spent many hours researching her family's history and retained a life-long love of books and reading. 

A memorial visitation will be held Wednesday October 7, 2015 from 7:00 until 9:00 at the Donaldson Funeral Home, P.A. Chapel in Laurel, Maryland.

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