Name: Velma Leona COFFEY

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Birth: 20 Dec 1908

Death: 23 Jul 2011 Peculiar, MO

Father: Newton COFFEY (1875-1969)

Mother: Adelia Gertrude ROBINSON (1878-1973)

INTERVIEW WITH VELMA ANDERSON:

Memo: In December 2004 I (Fred Coffey) visited my Aunt, Velma (Coffey) Anderson, in the home she shared with my Aunt Dorothy (Coffey) Smith and my cousin Karen Smith. While there I recorded a conversation with Velma about her life - - that recording is included as an MP3 file in this package. Following is a transcript of that recording.

Discussion is between Velma, myself, Dorothy and Karen. It was recorded in Peculiar, Missouri. Velma had just celebrated her 96^th birthday a few days earlier:

Fred: Alright, Velma…

Velma: I can give you some of my past history, because you won't understand any of it if I don't begin there. When I was eleven years old, I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior. And when I was twelve years old, we had a Missionary speak at our church (F: I can't catch the name), and she taught me about the need of missionaries, and I sat there and cried.

When I went home, I didn't do much sleeping. And the next morning I went up to my room and I didn't hear an audible voice, but the Lord spoke to my heart, and he said "Will you go where I will send you?"

And I thought what if my mother or father died, and I might never see them again? And he, speaking in my heart, said "Will you go where I will send you?" And so finally I got to my knees and said "I will go where you send me." And that's what I done.

And the Lord was so gracious, because I was able to be home with both of my parents when they passed away. And in Colombia they usually just gave us one year of leave and not lose our interest in the Colombia. We could come and go as we pleased for one year. And that year they gave me two years, which was unusual, but I had to have those two years before father went to be with the Lord.

F: And what did you do to prepare yourself for missionary work?

V: Well, I went to the Bible College in Minnesota. For three years. And then I did work missionary work on the Canadian border for several years. With… just the ordinary people in the country, farmers. And we had many wonderful times together.

Karen: We found that story with the "Mexican Mission", when were you there? (Note: These files contain a report of this mission and Velma's work.)

Dorothy: While you were going to school, didn't you work with the Mexican Mission there in Minneapolis?

V: Yes. When I was in school in Minneapolis I would work with the Mexican people. They would come up to harvest beets, and then they would spend the winter in Minnesota. (They were migrant laborers.) And I worked with them.

F: When did you first go to Colombia?

V: In 1937, I'll never forget that trip. Well I have to tell you. I told the Lord, I says Lord, I don't want to go by myself. I want you to get me a husband! And he didn't. But he let me return with a Missionary couple that was returning to Colombia. And so he took care of everything for me, I didn't have to think of a thing until I landed in Colombia where I was to work.

F: Did you know Spanish before you went there?

V: Just a very little. And of course my first year was in learning Spanish. But then they made me go to work, teaching, before I finally got all my Spanish.

F: What subjects did you teach?

V: Well, then I taught just the regular school, plus missionary work. Let me think. They put me first of all to take care of the girls' dormitory, and I was with the girls' school for 5 years. And then I was with the boys school, also for 5 years. Most of the students were Colombian.

K: I have some letters you wrote in 1938, letters to Mildred. About the work you were doing.

V: Well, let me read them and see what she said. (K: They're your letters.) Oh, what I wrote. I don't remember what I wrote.

F: What are some of your favorite memories?

V: Well, there were so many of them, I hardly know. But I think maybe the ones I enjoyed the most were when I was out in the jungle. There were Indians. They spoke a native language, but they were learning Spanish. I taught Spanish to them. But they would chatter in their own language. They lived in a dormitory in the school. They were all young people. The families were there with them, and in the summer time they would go back out into the jungle where they came from.

V: One story that was kind of interesting, my companion working in vacation bible school, we traveled a lot. And we went up into the mountains. They always gave us our own room. One night the bed bugs were terrible, and we could see them crawling around on the wall. We decided to see if we could get rid of them, so we lit a candle. And we almost set the thing on fire. But the Lord helped us get the fire out. That was one of the troubles - there were bed bugs! I never had malaria as far as I know. I had to stop taking preventative quinine because it affected my ears, and they told me to stop. But I did have bedbug fever! (Discussion of eliminating bedbugs left out of this transcript.)

V: (One time) we were going to go way up in the mountains, to teach bible school, and it was called "La Strella", which means "The Stars". Way up in the sky. And it was night before we arrived, and the man that was leading us called to me and said "Now hang to your right", and I did. Because he told me to, and I followed him.

But the next day when I came down on that same path I saw why. Just one little slip and I would have gone clear over the mountain. They said many of a horse had been killed. The Lord always protected me. That was at night, and I came back in the daytime!

V: I was glad to know that there were many, many, evangelicals in Colombia. The Mission was located in Cali. Much of my time was in Palmira, Colombia. And then after that is when we went to the (?) Indians. (For discussion of when that occurred, see Velma's diaries.)

K: (Discussion of Velma's letters to Gertrude, which were destroyed.)

F: You have an adopted son, right? Tell me about him.

V: He was my FOSTER son. I wanted to adopt him, but the government then would not let a single person adopt someone of the opposite sex. I talked to a lawyer, and he said "It's crazy, but I can't do anything about it." So I couldn't adopt him.

This is the story they gave to me. That his mother was not married to the father, and the neighbor saw her leave with her suitcase, and she did not have the baby. And the father had already gone to work. So she went over to the house to see what had happened to the baby. And he was in the bed, covered up as tightly as he could be covered, without a doubt hoping that it would kill him. So she took the baby, and then she took care of him. But of course she didn't know what kind of food to give a child. And when she saw he was not going to die, she brought him over to the hospital clinic. He was almost two years old then, but couldn't lift his head. So the first thing they did was get him (Spanish?) purged (laxative). To clean him out.

And they (the clinic) kept him. He had a smile that won everybody. And two of the doctors thought a lot of him. And they worked with him. Then he started to walk, and then they said they could not keep him at the clinic any longer. And I was teaching, and they said "Would you take him?" And I said "I can't take him, I'm teaching all day long." And they said "Just put him in his crib and he'll be alright." And I said "I can't take him." And then they just brought him out and said "Here he is."

His name is Ferley Camelo. He (still) lives in Colombia, in the same town. He does many different kinds of work, he works with the government to teach people how to take care of themselves. He works for them, because he can talk English. I taught him English, I made up my mind he was going to talk English. They would send him with the men going out investigating the land and seeing how the people lived. So he worked for them for many years. And I think he's still with them.

He married a very sweet lady. He has a family now, the daughter has just been wonderful to me. She writes to me all the time, but in Spanish. I told her she needs to use her English.

I don't have any trouble talking Spanish, but I do have trouble writing Spanish.

There you've got my life, what else do you want?

F: Tell me about Colombia security, was it also bad when you were there?

V: There has always been fighting and turmoil in Colombia. I've never known when they haven't had fighting going on. I'll tell you how the Lord takes care of us!

K: Tell them about the bomb in front of your house.

V: Something else first. Because we were out in the Chicol (?), the jungle, and I was with a Colombian couple, and they had a motorboat. They made their own boat, cut a tree down (a dugout). They had a motor on it. They had gone up the river to get some people. They were going to come home, and the motor would not start. I was at their church with my foster son. But the next morning they pulled the trigger on the motor and it started right off. And when they got so far there were two or three men standing on the bank, and they had guns. They would point the guns at them, and they would not go off. And they would point them up, and they DID go off. And that's the way the Lord protected them until they got home.

(About the bomb.) Oh yes. We had a girls' school, and the church led to it. And it was in the school, in the compound, as you open the door there was the church on one side and the school and dormitory on the other side. I don't know why, but I was alone that night. They had been told to kill anybody who wasn't a Catholic. They hurt themselves because after that (hard to hear comments)…

Well that night I was alone, and all of a sudden a bomb went off. Well, I woke up, and you could hear the people out there talking all the time. It made a hole big enough that you could crawl through. I went back to bed, and said "Lord, I am in your hands." And then the next morning they came up and filled in the hole. The hole was at the door coming in between the church and school. I had lots of experiences…

F: When did you meet Burl?

V: (Laughing), well that's another story. We were going to the same church before his first wife died. I would sit on one side of the church (this was in El Paso, TX), and they would sit on the other side. So I really didn't know them at all. But the girl that I worked with in the (church) nursery was very close to them. And she used to say, Velma, there are not too many children here, I want to go up and see Virginia (Burl's wife), do you mind? Please pray for Virginia. She died of cancer. That was the first time. (Part of comments hard to hear.)

We were taking care of a lady, that was an invalid, and she was blind. And she was by herself many times during the day. I had a key, I could get in any time of the day, and I would go take care of her. Burl had also been praying for this lady, and he said "I want to go in and see her". Judy said "I haven't got time, Velma has a key, ask her to let you in." And that's how we met. There you've got the story.

Well, I'll tell you one thing. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful husband. He was a dedicated Christian, and he did a lot of wonderful work. He was wonderful, and he was ready to go any time of the day or night. Because we could go on faith, at any time and any way we wanted to. Most of the places he couldn't get in except certain times at night. He was in the military, he also worked at the post office after he retired from the military. We had a beautiful marriage.

From Coffey Family stories and notes, compiled by Lynda Clare for 2005 Coffey Reunion:

Velma lived in Iowa until she went to Bible School in Minneapolis. When she finished Bible School, Velma returned there to work. In 1937 Velma went to Colombia as a missionary, where she stayed for 39 years. In Colombia Velma raised Ferley, a little Colombian boy whose mother had abandoned him.

When Velma retired from missionary work she lived in El Paso, Texas, with her sister, Carol.

In El Paso Velma met Burl Anderson and they married in 1982. After Burl passed away in 2002, Velma moved to Peculiar, Missouri, to live with her sister Dorothy.

Iowa could get mighty cold in the winter. In the evenings, the Coffey girls would change into their pajamas in front of the living room stove while the boys waited in the kitchen for their turn. On the stove were soapstones. The kids would wrap the soapstones in towels and place them in their beds to warm them up. None of the upstairs bedrooms were heated.

The boys slept in the larger bedroom upstairs and the oldest girl at home slept in a small single bedroom. The rest of the girls slept in the third upstairs bedroom. Mother would leave a lamp lit on the small three-drawer chest in the upstairs hall. When the last boy would come home (probably late, from a date), he would blow it out.

One night Velma woke up practically freezing to death, alone in a big double bed. She decided to hop into bed with Erma and Dorothy; maybe they could warm her up. In order to avoid letting her feet touch the floor – so icy cold – Velma swung her arms and leapt with all her might, landing right on top of Erma.

Erma awoke with the fear that someone was attacking her little sister beside her. Erma grabbed the stranger that had landed on top of her and so bravely protected Dorothy by repeatedly punching this stranger in the face! Unable to explain herself to Erma, Velma hopped to the foot of the bed and curled into a ball until Erma calmed down. Some 80 years later, Erma’s face still turns red with laughter each time she repeats the story.

Velma insists that Erma broke her arm, too, but Erma insists that was Velma’s own fault. Velma was chasing Erma when Erma tripped and fell. Unable to stop in time, Velma fell over Erma, landing on her own arm. Velma insists that Erma broke her arm, but Erma says that Velma should not have been chasing her to begin with! One way or another, Velma should stay away from Erma to avoid any further injury!

Spouses

1: Burl ANDERSON

Burl William Anderson, 82, of Winfield, died Jan. 13, 2003, at Good Samaritan Village.

Services were at 2 p.m. today in Swisher-Taylor & Morris Chapel. Burial will be in Fort Bliss Cemetery, El Paso, Texas.

Memorials have been established with the Gospel Missionary Union and the Gideon Bible Society.

Anderson was born Aug. 13, 1920, in Wichita, to Gladys (Orcult) and Bill Anderson. He was raised by his grandparents and educated in Plainville.

In 1942 he was drafted into the Army and served in World War II. He remained in the military until retiring in 1966.

In 1947 he married Virginia Anderson. She died in 1980.

On Jan. 14, 1982, he married Velma Coffey.

From 1976 to 1986 Anderson worked for the United States Postal Service in Wichita.

A deacon at the Grandview Baptist Church in El Paso, Texas, he did missionary work for the Baptist Church and the Gospel Missionary Union. He also volunteered his time at a rescue mission in El Paso.

Survivors include his wife, Velma Anderson, Winfield, and a daughter, Sandra E. Anderson, Brandon, Miss.

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