Nalda Sullivan believed all things were better with Coke, and to prove it she kept a workshop filled with memorabilia.
It was a display of quality and quantity, variety and value, a private trove of Coca-Cola's marketing and advertising efforts to promote product that spanned decades. The California native collected the items over 30 years.
"She was a displaced Georgian, but she was definitely inculcated in Southern traditions and its companies," said a son, Thomas Sullivan Jr. of Westcliffe, Colo. "Her collection was of stuff she'd bought or seen discarded somewhere, cans, bottles, even road signs. The workshop was stacked from floor to ceiling with shelves in between. We ended up selling those things."
Her husband, Thomas Hillman Sullivan Sr., built the 1,200-square-foot workshop in the back of their DeKalb County home specifically to house the items. The Conyers native married his wife in Reno, Nev., while he served in the Army during World War II.
For 25 years, Mrs. Sullivan worked as a nurse and office manager for the Atlanta Medicine Group. When she retired, she worked at Handy Ace Hardware in Tucker.
"The patients at the Atlanta Medicine Group depended on Mom to take care of them," her son said. "She enjoyed taking care of people and enjoyed having people depend on her."
On Feb. 28, Nalda Mary Coplantz Sullivan, formerly of Decatur, died from organ failure in a retirement community in Colorado Springs, Colo. She was 87. A memorial service and burial will be held at a later date at a family plot in Rockdale County.
Mrs. Sullivan was named after Nita Naldi, a silent-film actress during the Roaring '20s. She changed it to "Nalda."
In 1943, she married her husband, and the couple eventually moved to Decatur, where they lived in the same house more than 50 years. They moved to Colorado nearly two years ago to be near relatives.
This music and art lover collected more than Coca-Cola ware. She displayed an interest in coins, stamps and Delta memorabilia. But relatives say nothing compared with her Coke collection of toy delivery trucks, serving trays, wagons, bottles and so forth.
"It covered the spectrum," said Andrew Sullivan, a son from Alpharetta. "It is what she loved to do, so we didn't interfere with it. She was a strong-willed person, and she was going to do it anyhow."
The family sold the Coke collection because "it was too much for us," said Thomas Sullivan Jr., the eldest son. "We tried to get something back for her."
Additional survivors include her husband of 68 years, Thomas Hillman Sullivan Sr. of Colorado Springs, Colo.; another son, John Sullivan of Monument, Colo.; a brother, John Coplantz of Gustine, Calif.; and five grandchildren.
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