PD Obituaries

June 14, 2009

Dory Coffee

May 11, 2009

Dory Coffee, 67, died May 11, 2009 at her Lambertville, NJ, home.

Born in Avoca, she was a daughter of the late Adam and Edith Kendzior Coffee. Her parents named her Dolores, but soon dubbed her “Dory.” The affectionate nickname stuck with family and friends throughout her life. After earning a degree in fashion design from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, she and her classmate, Joan Sibley, moved to New York City and started a small custom design clothing line. At first working out of their apartment, their classic and very wearable couture soon caught the eye of an editor at Vogue and their very successful venture, Sibley-Coffee, Ltd., was launched. Their designs were featured in fashion magazines and advertisements in all media formats. Bonwit Teller, Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue carried their designs and their custom design clients included Jacqueline Onassis and Faye Dunaway. Following many successful years in the fashion industry, she returned to her first love, studio painting. The fine sense of color and design that fostered Dory’s successful clothing career was the foundation of her achievements as a studio artist. Usually working in oils, she painted landscape, still life, animals, portraits and interiors. Her paintings have been exhibited in New York City, Lambertville, New Hope, Palm Beach and Southampton, Long Island. In 1990, her work was shown in Antibes, France, and in 1995, she became the first American artist whose work was displayed at the Eden Roc Pavilion at Cap d’ Antibes. Her paintings are in the private collection of President and Secretary of State Clinton, Bill Blass, Terrence McNally and Rudy Voeller and included in the permanent collection at Bristol-Myers-Squib. Her work is carried by the Kew Gallery, New York City; the Petite Galerie, Annapolis, MD, and the Lambertville Gallery of Fine Art, Lambertville, NJ. She was also preceded in death by a brother, Michael Coffee.

She is survived by her brother, Adam, of Nanticoke; and her sister, Carole Coffee, of Wilkes-Barre; and a loving inner circle of friends and neighbors that she cherished dearly.

Funeral services were private and under the direction of the Van Horn-McDonough Funeral Home, 21 York St., Lambertville, NJ, 08530. Donations in her memory may be made to Tabby’s Place, 1100 US Highway 202, Ringoes, NJ 08551.

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