Mr. Floyd Coker of Evergreen passed away Tuesday, October 23, 2018, at the Evergreen Medical Center. He was 88.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, October 26, 2018, at Cope Keahey Chapel with Rev. Bill Messer and Rev. Jack Williamson officiating. Eulogy will be given by Pat Poole. The family will receive friends one hour prior to services. Interment will follow in Magnolia Cemetery Cope-Keahey is in charge of these arrangments.
Survivors include a son, Richard Coker of Evergreen; daughter, Terry Lynn Coker (Michael D.) Moorer of Shalimar; sisters, Mary Coker Floyd Sirmon of Evergreen, Ann Coker of Vero Beach FL, Faye (Richard) Rambo of Jacksonville FL., Sarah Owen of Molino FL., six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Mr. Coker is preceded in death by his son James Randall Coker.
Serving as pallbearers, John Crum Sessions, Joe Thorne Floyd, Luther Upton, Robbie Moorer, and Randy Brock.
Coker, who was known far and wide by his nickname “Famous Floyd,” passed away Tuesday afternoon of last week at Evergreen Medical Center. News of Coker’s passing spread rapidly through the community, and many were left shocked and saddened by the news of his death. Relatives said that Coker had been living in a local nursing home for some time, but recently developed pneumonia from which he did not recover.
Coker was perhaps best known for his many years as a local restauranteur, specializing in his own barbecue sauce, cornbread and hamburgers at Famous Floyd’s Restaurant in Evergreen. Cooker began his career in the restaurant business at the age of 15 when he began working in a local restaurant while attending Evergreen High School. Later, he went to work at Bainbridge, Ga. truck stop owned by his uncle, where he spent his days busing tables, shelling peas and crushing ice.
Coker enlisted in the National Guard at the age of 16 and then joined the U.S. Navy in November 1948. During his time in the Navy, he served as a Machinist First Class. Later, in 1953, Coker bought Jackson’s, a bus depot and service station restaurant in Georgiana on U.S. Highway 31. It was there that Coker began to refine his well-known style of home cooking that made his restaurants so popular in later years.
Coker sold Jackson’s two years later and then worked on and off in the insurance and restaurant businesses. Coker, a well-known teller of humorous stories, was also well known for his “liar’s table” at Famous Floyd’s, the nickname for a group of about 10 men who would gather in the early morning hours at Coker’s restaurant and “solve the world’s problems.” Coker was also a supporter of many community causes and coached Little League Baseball in Evergreen for many, many years.
"Lee Peacock Evergreen Courant"
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