Colleen (Coke) Joyce Tillman was born November 2, 1929 in Council Bluffs, Iowa and passed away on February 1, 2024. She grew up in Omaha and Falls City, Nebraska, graduating from Falls City High School where she excelled in dramatics. She attended Peru State College where she met the love of her life, Jack Tillman. They were married for over 64 years. Coke then graduated from Peru State College and became an elementary school teacher. After starting a family, many years later, she also graduated from John F. Kennedy College in Wahoo, Nebraska and resumed her teaching career.
Coke was preceded in death by her husband, Jack Tillman, her parents Glen and May Williams, her loving sister Audrey and husband Jim Bennett, brothers-in-law Roger (Janet) Tillman and Chuck Tillman, sons-in-law, Dave Sabatka and Rick Katzman, and grandson-in-law Caddy Hendrix-Jones. She is survived by her children Julee Katzman, Sam (Jeral) Tillman, Mindy (Cheryl) Sabatka, Chuck (Carol) Tillman and ten grandchildren Madeline Hendrix-Jones, Jacob (Alonit) Katzman, Molly Tillman, Joe (Amy) Sabatka, Mikki (Brent) Lund, Mackenzie (Jarod) Champoux, Jack Tillman, Clarissa Tillman, Luke Tillman, Tim Stephens and eight great grandchildren. She will also be missed by her many nieces, nephews and special friends.
Throughout her life, she was a teacher both professionally and in her many volunteer activities in the community and at church, leading her family and others to understand and truly care about one another. We are thankful for her endless, unconditional love, for being our mother, our role model, our friend and for teaching us and our children those lessons that are most important in life. She continues her love of teaching by being a participant in the Anatomical Gift Program of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
A service celebrating her life will be held at 2:00 PM on Saturday, February 17th at First Presbyterian Church in Wahoo, Nebraska where she and her husband lived for 45 years. Pruss-Nabity Funeral Home in Wahoo is responsible for the arrangements. In lieu of flowers, memorials will be used to establish a scholarship fund at Peru State College
.
