This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: MANESS, COLEMAN, RICHESON, DECLUE, DIETER, CAMILLO, GOUGH, BROCK, KATHCART, BOBBETT, PORTELL, MOSS, JARVIS, ECKHOFF, GARCIA, MCMAHON Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/lNB.2ACI/4313 Message Board Post: Benjamin F. "Benny" Coleman of Potosi, Missouri passed away Friday, March 31, 2006 at Georgian Gardens Nursing Center in Potosi, Missouri at the age of 82 years, 11 months and 16 days. He was born in the Pine Valley Area of Potosi, Missouri on April 15, 1923; the sixth child of the family of four girls followed by four boys of Amos Coleman and Oma Katherine (Maness) Coleman. Ben attended the small Hochstatter School in rural Washington County. As a teenager, he worked cutting timber. On February 2, 1943 he was inducted into the United States Army to serve in World War II. Ben entered active duty on February 9, 1943. During his service to his country, he served in Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes, Normandy and Central Europe. He was awarded a Good Conduct Medal, five Bronze Service Stars, three Overseas Service Bars, a Theatre Campaign Ribbon-Europe and an African Mid-Eastern Theatre Campaign Ribbon and American Service Lapel Buttons. Ben was honorably discharged on December 3, 1945. Soon after returning home from the military service, Ben went to work at the Missouri-Pacific Railroad Car Shops at DeSoto, Missouri. Ben and some other family members later moved to the Augusta, Missouri area to work in the logging industry. When he returned to Washington County, Ben was employed at the heel factor in Potosi. He worked there until the factory closed. Ben was later employed at the Chemingko Mines at Bixby, Missouri. He worked part-time for Owen and Betty Richeson at their Potosi Package and Sporting Goods Store. During that time Ben also raised chickens. On July 2, 1969 Ben was united in marriage in Potosi, Missouri to Reva Muriel Richeson at the home of the Presbyterian pastor, Rev. Francis “F.H.” Daniel. In late 1969 Ben went to work for Vitro Products, Inc., a restaurant furniture manufacturer in St. Louis, Missouri. He was seriously injured there on April 20, 1973 which resulted in the loss of most of his right hand. He returned to work there in August 1973 and remained there until his retirement in mid-April 1985. For a short time following his marriage, Ben raised chickens, followed by geese, and in 1972 he began raising Black Angus cattle and in later years Hereford cattle. For many years Ben had beagle dogs that he took hunting. In the years since his retirement, Ben spent countless hours watching birds, rabbits, squirrels and other animals that ran through the yard and fields. He most enjoyed the time spent with his hunting dogs and in more recent years, his “constant companion” dogs, “Bobby” and the last of which was “Billy” as his companion for 14 years until “Billy’s” death on December 30, 2000. More recently he enjoyed the pet cats “Alley Tom” and later “Mackie Tom.” Ben joined the Potosi United Methodist church in 1974. He was also a member of the Cordia-Humphrey Post 265 of the American Legion in Potosi. During the last few years, Ben accompanied his wife as she would do volunteer work at Potosi Manor and Georgian Gardens Nursing Center in Potosi. He and Muriel were certified hospice-volunteers. Ben was preceded in death by his father, Amos Coleman; his mother, Oma Katherine (Maness) Coleman; four sisters, Francis DeClue, Edith Dieter, Naomi Coleman and Anne Camillo; two brothers, Henry and Roy Coleman; two brothers-in-law, Joe Camillo and Jesse “Bud” Dieter and a former brother-in-law, Gerard Coleman; two sisters-in-law, Leatta (Gough) Coleman-Brock and Mary (Kathcart) Bobbett-Coleman; three nephews, Mark “Chico” Coleman, Roger “Monk” Coleman, and a nephew that died in infancy; also a great-great nephew, Dylan Matthew Portell. Ben is survived by his loving and devoted wife of 36 years, Reva Muriel Richeson-Coleman of Potosi; two stepsons, Joe and wife Kara Richeson of Potosi and James Richeson of Potosi; one brother, Walter and wife Wilma Coleman of DeSoto, Missouri; sister-in-law, Margie Moss of Mineral Point, Missouri and former sister-in-law, Pat Jarvis of Potosi; nine nieces; eight nephews and four first cousins; Melvina (Mrs. Harold) Eckhoff of Mineral Point, Rhoda Garcia of St. Louis, Sadie McMahon of Potosi and Anna Jarvis of Potosi and other relatives that survive. Visitation was held at Britton Funeral Home of Potosi on Sunday, April 2, 2006. Funeral services were held Monday, April 3, 2006 at Britton Funeral Home Chapel, Potosi, with Rev. Jerry Compton officiating. Burial was in the family plot beside his parents and sister Frances at the Hopewell Union Church Cemetery in Hopewell. Independent Journal, Potosi, MO, Thursday, April 6, 2006