Sylvia Randall Coates' Obituary
Sylvia R. Coates, 87 of Severna Park, Maryland passed away on March 20, 2025, following a brief illness.
Sylvia was born on April 14, 1937, to James and Sarah Randall (both predeceased).
Sylvia was a graduate of Wiley H. Bates High School Class of 1955. Sylvia was class president of her senior class. In addition to being a class officer, she was a member of the Senior Honor Society, she was active in cheerleading, senior choir, basketball and she was on the yearbook committee. Upon graduating, she attended Hampton Institute in Hampton, VA for one year. After this, she entered the workforce for several years, but did return to college in much later years and earned her Associates Degree from Anne Arundel Community College in 1986.
Sylvia had a wide range of employment experiences in her lifetime including a summer stint as a nanny in her teenage years. As an adult, she entered the workforce in the secretarial pool at Crownsville State Hospital. Following this, she spent many years building her career working at various state agencies to include the Governor’s Mansion and the Department of Natural Resources.
Sylvia was a feisty one. When she was not promoted to a certain position, for which she was qualified, but was told that she was to train the unqualified candidate who had been promoted into the position, she advised that she was not going to train that person, and she quit on the spot. She drove home thinking “What did I just do and what am I going to do next?” But God stepped in and when she got home, she received a phone call from another state agency expressing an interest in hiring her for an open position. She did not know how they came to select her. She interviewed and got the job, and it opened the door to the Department of Agriculture where she moved through various roles with increasing managerial responsibility. She served as Chief of Personnel Services at the Department of Agriculture before finally retiring in 1988.
A few years after retiring from the state, she desired a new and different experience and became an H&R Block tax preparer which she did for several years. She enjoyed the mental stimulation of working in this finance area. She was always a business sounding board for her family members. Whenever they were in some sort of quandary, they would seek her out.
In her retirement years, another experience that she wanted more of was family time. As a mother of two (now grown) daughters, Yolanda Parrish and Nadine Jones, from her first marriage to William A. Jones, and grandmother to three grandchildren: Lamar Parrish, Randall Parrish and Mariah Parrish, she and her late husband James made frequent extended stay trips to Virginia to spend time with the family. She derived great joy and pleasure from being around the grandchildren and watching them grow and develop from babies into adults. With Nadine also residing in Virginia and with the inclusion of Yolanda’s husband Thomas, she enjoyed bonding, dining, celebrating birthdays, traveling and vacationing with a core “party of 8” for many years.
Sylvia was a very active member of Mt. Moriah A.M.E church for a number of decades. Her journey with Mt. Moriah started when she was young, following in her mother’s footsteps as a member of the historic Franklin Street location of the original church home. Years later when she had her two children, they too became members attending Sunday school at the Franklin Street location.
Sylvia was not just a “Sunday” member, but a Sunday through Saturday member. It was not unusual to see Sylvia come home from her day job at 5:00, quickly eat her dinner and then rush off to a meeting at the church on multiple days of the week. She would even venture out to meetings on snowy evenings when weather channels would tell you “Don’t go out if you don’t have to”. She was heavily involved on many church committees and also was a member of the church choir. She derived great pleasure from the relationships that she built in the church and engaging in various special projects, trips and conferences sponsored by the church. You would not want to ride to church with Sylvia on Sundays if your plan was to leave right after service - Oh, no, because “Miss Sylvia” was often staying after church for some type of meeting and would leave her riding companions waiting in the car.
Sylvia enjoyed numerous hobbies during her lifetime. She was one who always had a strong intellectual curiosity and was a voracious reader of many genres of books – business, legal, spiritual, gardening, cooking, sewing, etc. If you ever lost track of her in a mall, you always knew you could find her in whatever bookstore was in that mall. She had a thirst for learning and was always taking some type of class to expand her knowledge in a range of areas. Her favorite tv shows to watch were Judge Judy and Suze Ormon both of which included topics that she could learn and apply to life.
Sewing was a hobby that she pulled both of her daughters into. The three of them would spend hours shopping for and buying beautiful fabrics, looking through huge pattern books and then she would guide her daughters through the process of sewing items of customized clothing for their wardrobes. This was a great bonding activity for many years. As it turns out, Sylvia was actually uncovering a latent talent in Nadine who went on to design and make both her sister Yolanda and her Mom’s wedding gowns.
Sylvia was in lockstep with the introduction and subsequent evolution of the personal computer from the Commodore 64 to the desktop PCs with all the bells and whistles. She merged her computer skills with her love of photography and for many years used various graphic design programs to create custom greeting cards and calendars.
Sylvia married James M. Coates (deceased) in 1986 and enjoyed 36 years of marriage and life adventures traveling before his passing in 2023. She and James were always on the go, traveling from state to state to discover new destinations whether with just the two of them or with their RV group – Good Sam Maryland Capital Sams Chapter 13. Life was a constant and fun adventure for them.
Sylvia leaves to cherish her memory, two daughters: Yolanda Parrish (Thomas – deceased) and Nadine Jones; three grandchildren: Lamar Parrish, Randall Parrish and Mariah Parrish, and a host of other relatives and friends.
Sylvia is preceded in death by four brothers: James Randall, John Randall (Ann – deceased), Norman Randall (Renee), and Lamont Randall (Ann - deceased), and three sisters: Arlene Mathis, Karen Brown (Alfred), and Loretta Reavis. Sylvia is also preceded in death by two nephews: Ronaldo Mathis and Rodney Stewart, and one great-niece Veronica Randall.
A funeral service will be held on April 11, 2025, at 11:00 A.M. at Lasting Tributes, 814 Bestgate Road, Annapolis, MD. A public viewing will take place before the service from 10:00 A.M. - 11:00 A.M. Following the service, Sylvia will join her late husband James Coates in a private burial at the Maryland Veterans Cemetery in Crownsville, MD.
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