Audrey Jean Woodson Coleman

Audrey Jean Woodson Coleman died peacefully in her home on July 23, 2026, at the age of 91, after a brief illness. Audrey was a loving and devoted wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend, master homemaker, passionate educator, and proud resident of Shaker Heights for almost seven decades.

Audrey was born on August 29, 1934, in Cleveland, OH, to Olga Aida “Ida” DiPadova Woodson and James Franklin “Frank” Woodson. The young family lived in Ida and Frank’s hometown of Pittsburgh for a short time. But the marriage did not last, and Ida returned to Cleveland with preschool Audrey to live close to Ida’s sister and husband, her only family who accepted her after her interracial marriage to Frank. Audrey would call the Cleveland area home for the rest of her life.

Audrey attended Cleveland Public Schools: Lafayette Elementary, Audubon Junior High, and John Adams High School. During her school years, Audrey met a group of fun and similarly-minded friends, many would be lifelong, for whom education was important (including the man who would become her husband, Rodney Coleman). They all would go on to college, a rare path for all Americans, and especially African-Americans, in the post-war years.

The Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Cleveland that Audrey and Ida called home was a big, vibrant area of hard working families, close-knit neighbors and thriving mom-and-pop businesses. As a child, Audrey spent the school year in Cleveland, and most of her summers having adventures with her adoring father in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. In Pittsburgh, Audrey loved being with her beloved Woodson cousins and grandparents. She found Washington D.C., where Frank worked for the federal government, to be exciting, and there were many fun side trips to New York City, Coney Island, Atlantic City, and other east coast destinations. In the summer of 1946, while visiting her father, Audrey took her first plane ride. At that time, non-military, passenger air travel was almost unheard of except for celebrities and the wealthy. Audrey always cherished the memories of the time she spent with her father.

In some ways, growing up the child of divorce was difficult, but after the war, Ida married a kind and gentle man, Phil Strickland, and Audrey gained a stepfather. At the age of 14, Audrey became big sister to baby Phylis.

In the fall of 1952, Audrey began her freshman year at The Ohio State University. She lived all four of her college years in Oxley Hall dormitory, where she made many lifelong friends. At OSU, Audrey earned a BS in education. During her senior year, in 1955, she was asked if she would be willing to be the first African-American student teacher placed in a Columbus Public school with an all-white teaching staff. Courageously, she agreed. After excelling as a student teacher, Audrey was offered and accepted a teaching position at that school, to begin after graduation. Thus, Audrey became a full-time teacher at Weinland Park Elementary School; she was the first African-American teacher in the Columbus Public Schools to be placed in a school with an all-white teaching staff.

At OSU, Audrey and Rodney’s high school friendship deepened. They had similar values, a shared vision for the future, and they were crazy about each other. During the fall of 1955, Audrey’s senior year, they snuck away to Richmond, Indiana to elope, beginning a marriage that would last for 68 years. They married in Richmond to keep the marriage secret from Rodney's Columbus relatives (who would alert their parents). At that time, all Columbus marriage license applications were published in The Columbus Dispatch. They revealed their marriage to their parents only after Audrey graduated from OSU in June.

Rodney had one year remaining at the law school at OSU and Audrey had the teaching job, so they stayed in Columbus for one more year. Audrey’s teacher’s salary supported the couple. Rodney received his law degree in June of 1957, and six days later their daughter, Laura Dawn, was born. After Rodney sat for the Ohio Bar Exam, the young family packed up their newborn and their belongings and returned home to Cleveland.

Audrey’s career as a Cleveland Public Schools elementary teacher, first at Kinsman Elementary School and then at Robert Fulton Elementary School, built the financial foundation of the family. While Rodney hung out his shingle and began to build his career as a general practice lawyer, Audrey continued to support the family financially; nurtured her husband; served as his secretary in the evenings, typing all his legal documents; organized and managed their home; and lovingly cared for their young child. She was an unsung superwoman in those early years of marriage and throughout her life.

Audrey and Rodney began their Shaker Heights decades in 1960, with the purchase of a home in the Ludlow neighborhood. Their decision placed the young family within a larger chapter of Greater Cleveland history. Across the nation, African American families moving into previously racially restricted neighborhoods encountered discrimination, resistance, and violence. The Ludlow community became nationally notable for white and African-American homeowners who worked together deliberately to build and preserve an integrated neighborhood. The Colemans loved the Ludlow neighborhood and made lifelong dear friends there. In 1964, the family grew again with the birth of a son, Alan David “Al”.

The family would push through racial boundaries once again in 1966 when they purchased a larger home in the Fernway neighborhood of Shaker Heights. The sellers of the home, on Parkland Drive, would only sell through the intermediary of Audrey’s mother Ida, so that the neighbors wouldn’t know they had sold to a Black family. The Parkland home was the center of Coleman family life for decades. There, Audrey and Rodney raised their children; their grandchildren played, explored and made memories; they met their great-grandson for the first time; and they hosted countless parties, cookouts, holidays, and celebrations for family and dear friends.

Shortly after the move to Parkland, with Rodney’s law practice prospering, and now with two children, Audrey decided to pause her teaching career and fulfill her dream of being a stay-at-home mom. In that role, she devoted herself to organizing and managing every aspect of the household and doing what she loved the most: caring for and nurturing her family and creating a warm, cozy, welcoming, beautiful home.

Audrey and Rodney were an extraordinary team. He was a lawyer by day, and, at the family home by night and weekend, a skilled plumber, electrician, carpenter, painter, landscaper, brick layer and auto mechanic. Audrey nurtured Rodney and the children, body and soul. She was a master cook, baker, hostess and holiday magic maker. Rodney, Laura, Al, and every guest who walked through their door, enjoyed the warmth, coziness and beauty of the home Audrey made and managed and the delicious meals she prepared. She poured love into her family and close friends. At the same time, she was a super volunteer, contributing her time, energy and talent to the PTAs at both of her children’s schools each year. And with Rodney and Audrey’s four aging parents in Cleveland, she was always on call for their many needs.

As parents, Audrey and Rodney modeled and stressed the value of education and life long learning, hard work and resilience. They exposed their children to art, music, and travel, with family vacations across the US, Europe and Canada, visiting seven countries and 34 states.

Audrey resumed her teaching career once Laura and Al had graduated from high school and left the nest. She accepted a position at Lomond Elementary School, in the Shaker Heights School District, to teach English as a second language (ESL) to the growing number of non-English speaking elementary aged children of families moving into Shaker in the early 1980s from all over the world. Many of her students were the children of physicians and researchers who were coming to Cleveland to receive training at the Cleveland Clinic or University Hospitals. Audrey loved her students, and she played an invaluable role in her students' learning, revamping the entire ESL program at Lomond. The children were eager to learn English so they could make friends and understand what was happening in their regular classrooms and settle into their new lives in the US. They loved Mrs. Coleman and her cheerful and engaging classroom. Over the years, Audrey received countless kind notes and gifts from these students and their parents, expressing their appreciation and affection for her. Audrey taught at Lomond for almost twenty years.

In the empty nest years, Audrey and Rodney had the pleasure of seeing their children find wonderful life partners. Laura married Paul in 1984, and Al married Kathy in 2003. They were delighted as their family expanded to include two grandsons, Scott and Ryan. Audrey and Rodney loved their roles as Nana and Grandpa and they leaned in with enthusiasm. They visited Columbus often to spend time with their grandsons and to be a part of all the special celebrations and events in their grandsons’ lives. Thousands of miles were driven on Interstate 71 as Audrey and Rodney traveled back and forth to Columbus and as Laura and Paul’s family drove back and forth to Shaker. Audrey and Rodney took Scott and Ryan on special vacations to the western US, Canada and New York and joined Laura and Paul’s family on an exciting trip to London in 2000. Now there was a new generation for Audrey to delight by making all holiday celebrations magical. In 2023, Audrey and Rodney were overjoyed to welcome a great-grandson, Ivan Coleman Williams, into the family; in 2025, Audrey became a great-grandmother for a second time upon the joyful birth of great granddaughter, Vera Sofia Williams.

Audrey loved finding and curating the accessories which made her home beautiful (and her wardrobe fun). She researched and collected Lladro pieces and the sterling, antique china, crystal, and glassware which she used to create her gorgeous tablescapes. Her family and beloved friends were treated to delicious home-cooked meals served at elegantly set tables. She also enjoyed crocheting and sewing for the home, creating lovely afghans, comforters, curtains and pillows. And whenever she left her home, she was beautifully dressed in her signature jazzy style, and often wearing one of the many great hats in her extensive hat collection.

Beyond her roles as dedicated and amazing wife, mom, nana, home maker and teacher, Audrey’s life had many other dimensions. Audrey was a devoted, caring and loyal friend, always there to listen, to laugh, and to give wise counsel if asked. She loved her extended family and greatly looked forward to (and often planned) her family’s reunions. She was fascinated by her family history and genealogy. One of Audrey's proudest accomplishments was finding her "lost cousins," hidden from Audrey‘s Cleveland family due to the prejudices of previous generations. Audrey spent decades on this quest, researching her family’s history and and chasing every clue. In 2013, with the help of some family sleuths, she found the cousins and joyfully brought them into the family’s embrace. Audrey also was a proud cat mom. She adored her longtime calico cat, Callie, her companion for fourteen years. Callie died in April, 2026.

Audrey's interests stretched beyond family and the home. Audrey enjoyed reading novels and news, and, proud Buckeye that she was, following Ohio State football. In her later years, she participated enthusiastically in the family running text commentary through each OSU game. Throughout her adult life, she enjoyed reading fiction but also was serious about staying informed, reading the daily Plain Dealer and the Sunday New York Times cover to cover. She was also an enthusiastic watcher of MSNBC/MSNOW, and she worried she would not live to see the nation that she loved healed from its recent divisiveness.

In the last years of Audrey’s life, ever the amazing partner, she looked after Rodney as his health declined. In his last year she was Rodney's full-time nurse and caregiver. She refused to place him in skilled nursing, allowing him to spend his last year in the Parkland Drive home which they both adored. After Rodney’s passing, it broke Audrey’s heart to sell that home, but she realized it was too large for her to live there independently. With determination she searched for, found, and moved into a lovely, one floor condo, just up the street and around the corner from their Parkland home of 59 years. She was ready to begin her next chapter.

Audrey was pre-deceased by her parents and her beloved husband of 69 years, Rodney Coleman. Left to miss her and mourn her passing are her daughter, Laura Williams (Paul) of New Albany, OH and Chicago, IL, and her son Al (Kathy) of Brimfield, OH; her grandsons Scott Williams (Veronika) of Chicago, IL, and Ryan Williams (Anne) of Brooklyn, NY, as well as great grandchildren Ivan Coleman Williams and Vera Sofia Williams. She also leaves her sister Phylis Young, of Maple Heights, OH, and many beloved family and friends.

Those who wish to make contributions in Audrey‘s honor, may consider Lung Cancer Research Foundation https://give.lungcancerresearchfoundation.org/audreycoleman 

A funeral mass was held at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, August 28 at Church of St. Dominic, 19000 Van Aken Blvd., Shaker Heights, OH, followed by private inurnment at Lake View Cemetery. To view the service virtually, please click on the livestream link below.