Anna M (Woodfall) Coyle

Ann was born in Northfield, NJ on November 15, 1936 to the late Philip B., Sr. and Katherine
(Vetter) Woodfall. She was a graduate of Pleasantville High School and the Temple University
School of Nursing in Philadelphia. She continued her education at Temple, the University of
Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Saint Joseph’s College in Philadelphia.

As a Registered Nurse, she held positions at Temple, Jefferson Hospital, the University of
Michigan Hospital, and the University of Pennsylvania.

It was at Jefferson that she met her husband, John, then an intern. They married in 1962, and
lived in Philadelphia while he completed a three-year residency at the Wills Eye Hospital.

They moved to Hazleton in 1965 where her husband practiced ophthalmology for 35 years, and
they raised their four beloved children. Ann loved spending time with family and learning new
things together. Early in her marriage, she learned to shoot trap, and she and her husband
enjoyed good times with the Atlantic Indians and Cavaliers trap shooting organizations, to which
he belonged. Ann was a member of a ladies’ trap shooting league in the Philadelphia area and
the Amateur Trap Shooting Association.

When the children showed an interest in tennis, she did also, and continued her love of tennis
for many years.

Ann took riding lessons when her 6-year-old daughter, now an accomplished equestrian, first
showed her love for it. So she would know how to help, Ann learned from the library how to
braid manes and tails – rejoicing the first time her daughter prepared her horse for a show on
her own.

Ann was happily busy taking her children to their many activities and traveling to their meets,
matches and games, from swim team, baseball and basketball, to skiing in the Jack Frost
Racing Program. At Jack Frost, because she did not wish to sit while waiting and heights did not
agree with her, she learned how to cross-country ski.

Ann also enjoyed bowling, something she, her parents and brother did as a family growing up.
When she returned to Hazleton, she and her husband bowled in the St. Gabriel’s League. She
was a past city doubles champion and enjoyed her time in the VCC league at intervals over the
years.

Ann had always wanted to take golf lessons but did not have time until her last child went to
college. It was then that she was given her first set of golf clubs by her children, and it became
her new love.

Ann loved music! From the 50s and Elvis, to classical and opera. She had a yearly subscription
to the Metropolitan Opera and traveled to New York City with friends for over 25 years. She and
her husband belonged to the former Broadway Theater in Scranton and the Philadelphia
Orchestra for many years.

Ann was a stay-at-home mother, but felt it was important to be an active volunteer in her
children’s schools and the community. At the former Holy Trinity School, she helped form the
Mother’s Club when the school was in jeopardy of closing, and to initiate a hot lunch program there. At MMI Preparatory School, she served as President of the Parent Faculty Association, a
tennis coach (the girls won the league championship in 1996-97), a co-moderator of the Health
Careers Club, a member of the Board of Directors, and a member of the MMI Honorary Board.
In the community, she served on the Hazleton Shade Tree Commission, volunteered at the
former St. Joseph’s Hospital, the Hazleton General Hospital’s annual Festival of Trees, was co-
chair of the then Annual Charity Ball, a puppeteer with the United Way’s Kids on the Block
program and served on the Mistletoe Ball Committee as a chaperone.

Ann was also a member of the former Hazleton Branch Luzerne County Medical Society
Auxiliary, serving two terms as president, and a member of the Women’s Committee for Wills
Eye Hospital.

When her husband retired in 2000, they traveled abroad each fall with a wonderful travel group
of friends visiting many countries.

August 2001 was a time of great happiness for Ann. It marked the birth of her first grandchild!
Six more grandchildren came after, and she loved each one of them with all her heart. She
loved traveling to their events and milestones: school programs, sporting events and academic
achievements, or just to spend time with them.

The most important thing in Ann’s life was her family and her love for them and for whom she
offered daily prayers. Important also was her Catholic faith and her life-long devotion to the
Blessed Mother. She was a member of the Annunciation Parish at the Church of St. Gabriel
where she served as a lector for many years.

Preceding her in death, in addition to her parents, was her husband of 52 years, John J. Coyle,
M.D., in 2014.

Surviving are her children: Kathleen M., M.D. (Brandywine, MD); John P., Esq. and wife Julie
(Johnstown, PA); Kevin J. and wife Wendy (Herndon, VA); and Brian W., M.D. (Milford, CT);
grandchildren, Connor, Ian, Megan, Aidan, Finn, Catherine, and Bridget. Brother, Philip B.
Woodfall II (North Bonneville, WA); and, niece, Margaret P. Coyle (Media, PA).

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday at 9:30 AM at Annunciation Parish, Church
of St. Gabriel. Interment will follow in St. Gabriel Cemetery.

Friends and Relatives may call at the Church from 8:30 to 9:30 prior to the Mass.

Funeral Arrangements under the direction of the Joseph B. Conahan Funeral Home, Inc. 532
N. Vine St. Hazleton.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Anna M (Woodfall) Coyle, please visit our floral store.