West Chester Lawyer and Accomplished Musician Dies at 87

James Mckenzie Coate, Sr. a long-time West Chest Chester attorney and musician has died at age 87.

His law practice in Philadelphia and West Chester focused on estate and family law and he was known for representing young people from both the suburbs and inner city. He also worked for the Legal Aid Society, the predecessor organization of Community Legal Services. 

His other passion was music. According to an obituary on the Founds Funeral Home website, Coate was a member of the Main Line Symphony for fifty years. According to the obituary "in 1972, he returned to his home town as a guest soloist with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra in the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A. He also played with the Lukens Steel Concert Band, the New Holland Concert Band, Maine Street Sound Dance Band and the Old Comrades Concert Band."

His family notes that Coate was a descendant of James Andrews McKenzie, a nineteenth century US Congressman from Kentucky and Ambassador to Peru, as well as Marmaduke Coate and Elijah Coate, Quaker abolitionists active in the Underground Railroad in Ohio and Indiana. 

Coate died on June 22 at The Hickman, a retirement community in West Chester, where he lived for the last five years of his life.

A memorial serviceis planned for 3 p.m. on Friday, August 9, at The Hickman, 400 North Walnut Street, West Chester, PA 19380.

You can read more about his life on the Founds Funeral Home website.