Opera Singer. A mezzo soprano, she had a long career from which she is remembered for having sung the lead 'Cigarette Girl' in Georges Bizet's "Carmen" around 2,000 times. Raised in Tampa, Florida, from her teens, she was a talented pianist and dancer but did not take to opera until the rather late age of 25. After auditioning in Ashville, North Carolina, for Fortune Gallo's traveling San Carlo Opera, she made her 1926 professional bow as the jealous Princess Amneris in a Toronto performance of Verdi's "Aida". Returning to Chicago in 1928, she became a company star at Civic Opera; quickly assigned the parts of Siebel in Gounod's "Faust" and Marina from Modest Mussorgsky's "Boris Godonov", she sang her first Carmen on December 23, 1928, and had found her signature, her voice and good looks rendering her perfect for the character. Coe performed such parts as the prostitute Maddalena from Verdi's "Rigoletto", Venus of Wagner's "Tannhauser", the Gypsy Azucena in Verdi's "Il Trovatore", and the title lead of Ambrose Thomas' "Mignon", and earned high praise by learning the role of Adalgisa in Vincenzo Bellini's "Norma" on short notice and more than holding her own opposite the great Rosa Raisa, but when Civic Opera went under in 1932 she found herself out of a job. Opera returned to the Windy City a year later, though the renamed Chicago City Opera never achieved the status of the former company; Coe began touring, giving about 90 recitals a year, made some 1935 appearances with the San Francisco Opera where her roles included Amneris as well as Charlotte from Jules Massenet's "Werther", frequently sang in New York, on one occasion headlining an abridged "Carmen" at Radio City Music Hall that was one of the legendary baritone Titta Ruffo's final trips to the stage, was associated with summer opera programs in Cincinnati and St. Louis for about 20 years, and from 1937 to 1947 rejoined San Carlo Opera, a partnership that took her Carmen to venues throughout North America. Coe retired in 1963 and lived out her days in Manhattan, teaching voice and, based on the evidence of a 1983 taped interview, remaining mentally sharp. She died following a protracted illness leaving no studio recordings, though a number of her live performances are preserved. During her career Coe listed 1906 as her birth year, though records support the above earlier date.