Herring Coe was born in Loeb, Texas on July 22, 1907. As a young adult, he attended Lamar College, where he studied electrical engineering. After receiving his degree, he went to Cranbrook Educational Community, where he studied art. During World War II, Coe was called to duty and served with the Navy. However, Coe's experience was most likely somewhat different from most men who served in that era, as he was a part of a Seabees unit based in Guadalcanal. The Seabees were a militarized construction crew that built and razed buildings for the military wherever they were sent, which undoubtedly influenced Coe's artistic development. As Coe developed as a sculptor, his pieces were characterized as architectural in nature with an affinity for simplicity of form. His works consisted mostly of commissioned works for permanent institutions, including the Battalion Memorial at Guadalcanal, the bronze Dick Dowling at Sabine Pass, TX, and the granite frieze on the cenotaph erected in memory of the children and teachers who perished in a school explosion at New London, TX. He is also the creator of
The Texan in Vicksburg National Military Park. Several Houston buildings are adorned with Coe sculptures, including Houston City Hall, Rice University Library, St. Mary's Seminary Chapel, St. Placidus Home for the Aged, First Presbyterian Church and the entrance to the Hermann Park Zoo. His works have been featured at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, The Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. For the overwhelming majority of his life, Coe remained in the Beaumont area of Texas, where he died on January 14, 1999.
Magnolia Cemetery
Beaumont
COORDINATES
30° 06.049, -094° 06.109
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