Sandra Hutchins Coleman

In Loving Memory of Sandra Coleman

Sandra “Sandi” Coleman passed away peacefully on September 23, 2026, at the age of 80.

She was born on March 23, 1946, in Longview, Texas, to the late Marjorie Hutchins and Y.D. Hutchins. From an early age, Sandi’s upbringing was rooted in the foundations of faith, family, education, and service.

Sandi graduated from Womack High School in 1964. Her love story with Wilbert Coleman began several years earlier when he first noticed her in junior high. They reconnected in high school, and that young connection eventually blossomed into a beautiful marriage that began on August 23, 1969. Together, they welcomed their son, Brian, in 1974, and over the next 57 years, they built a life filled with love, family, faith, and beautiful memories.

Sandi continued her education at Bishop College in Dallas, earning her Bachelor of Education degree in 1968. While at Bishop, she pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® in 1967 as a member of the Delta Kappa Chapter.

Education remained deeply important to Sandi throughout her life. She believed that a strong education could help children and young people reach their goals and find their way in the world.

Sandi began her professional career while still in college at Texas Instruments. She later dedicated 43 years to the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES), where she worked in the Hearing Examiners Office. A loyal and committed employee, Sandi remained with AAFES until her retirement on August 29, 2013.

Faith was the cornerstone of Sandi’s life. She worshiped and served at Longview Parkview Baptist Church and Carver Heights Baptist Church in Dallas before becoming a charter member of Antioch Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church. For more than 40 years, she faithfully served through the Choir, Missions, and Church School.

Sandi loved people, and she had a special gift for making everyone she encountered feel important. She loved hard, gave freely, and had a way of making you feel as if you were the only person in the room.

She also knew how to enjoy the little things in life. Sandi loved shopping, purses, shoes, and crossword puzzles. She especially loved the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Mavericks and would attend games whenever she could. She also loved sweet potato pie and Coca-Cola, and her purse was almost guaranteed to have a stash of Luden's cough drops, candy, and peppermints. In true Sandi form, she always had enough to share, and her beloved children and grandchildren - many of whom she loved and helped raise as her own - were always recipients of a sweet treat from their SanSandi/GrandSan.

Perhaps some of Sandi's greatest joy came from her grandsons, Nash and Knox. She treasured being their grandmother and took great pride in watching them grow, learn, discover who they were, and become the young men they are today. She encouraged them daily, prayed for them, celebrated their accomplishments, and reminded them through both her words and her example that education, character, faith, and hard work are of the utmost importance. It was always Sandi’s wish that the memories her boys made with their GanGan - from everyday moments to special occasions - will remain treasures they carry with them throughout their lives.

Sandi was preceded in death by her parents, Marjorie Hutchins and Y.D. Hutchins, and her beloved “Auntie”.

She leaves to cherish her memory her devoted husband of 57 years, Wilbert Coleman; her beloved son and daughter-in-love, Brian and Beneé Coleman; her cherished grandsons, Nash and Knox; her treasured godchildren; and her loving extended family and church family; and a host of dear friends and relatives.

She also leaves a special circle of family and friends, including Roselyn Barnett, Josie Brewster, Roberta Brown, Laverne Carmichael, Sam Harvey, Debra Hill, Bonita Kennedy, Mary Washington, and Sharron Whitaker. These women were a central and cherished part of Sandi’s village, sharing decades of friendship, love, and life together.

Sandi’s work here on earth is complete, but the love she gave is not. It lives on in Wilbert, Brian and Beneé, Nash and Knox, her family, her church, her friends, and every person who was fortunate enough to know her.

Her favorite scriptures - John 3:16, Luke 9:26, and Psalm 100 - reflect the faith and love of Christ that she carried throughout her life.

Her purse may no longer be filled with peppermints, but her life was filled with sweetness. And that sweetness will remain in the hearts of all who loved her.

Well done, Sandi. Your love remains. Your legacy lives on.

We love you to the moon and back.

Poem

I love you to the moon and back

To the moon and back remember?

There and back doesn’t even begin to explain

how much I love you

But I love you so much more than

just to the moon and back

I love you to the moon but further

I love you to the moon & back

to infinity and beyond

forever and ever.

I love you. To the moon and back.

And around the stars, out of our galaxy,

through the comets and the rings of far away

planets. Riding on a rocket ship back down to

earth to wherever you are.