Edmond P. Severns Jr.  

E.P. Severns Jr. President & Treasurer, Coca Cola Bottling Company of Kokomo, Indiana, Inc; A director of Central Bank, Kokomo; Howard County Redevelopment Commission (Chrysler) (1 year term) dated 27 Jan. 2006 s/o Edmond Paul & Barbara (Beeson) Severns

Feb 12, 2008 Rep. Buck Honors Coca-Cola Bottling Company

(STATEHOUSE) Feb. 12, 2008 - A concurrent resolution honoring the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Kokomo for achieving the milestone of 100 years in business was presented in the House of Representatives by Rep. Jim Buck (R-Kokomo) Monday. Rep. Buck was the House sponsor of the resolution, and Sen. Jeff Drozda (R-Westfield) was the Senate author.

"Coca-Cola in Kokomo has served this state for 100 years," said Rep. Buck. "The Severns family has served this state enormously well. I can't think of one charitable organization in this state, and in our community, that they haven't helped. They have been generous in all sorts of ways using their products, their time and their talents across our community."

In 1886, Coca-Cola was founded, and in 1907, the company signed a franchise agreement with a group in Logansport. In 1932, this group combined with bottling plants from Kokomo and Peru to form one organization.

Edmund, Frank and Roy Severns purchased the franchise in 1935, beginning the family's involvement with Coca-Cola. In 1947, E.P. Severns began working at the plant, where today, at age 77, he arrives at work at 7:30 a.m. every day. His son, Craig Severns serves as the general manager of Coca-Cola and has been a part of the business for more than 30 years.

The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Kokomo provides products to 13 surrounding counties within a 40-mile radius and distributes approximately 1.9 million cases per year.

November of 2007, Craig Severns went to the Indiana State House where he was presented with the Governor's Century Business Award in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the original franchise agreement

Kokomo Howard County Developement Corporation site is found Nov 8, 2008: Coca-Cola Bottling Co. shifted from bottling to product distribution in 2005, it has remained a pillar of the Kokomo community for a century. Owner and President E.P. Severns is a board member for a number of local organizations, including the Kokomo-Howard County Development Corporation and Central Bank. His son, Craig Severns, is the General Manager of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. In addition to his duties with the company, he is a board member of the United Way of Howard County, Salin Bank and Partners in Education. Both E.P. Severns and Craig Severns serve on the Hoosier Beverage Association Board of Directors.

Craig Severns states, “We are very proud to celebrate the 100th year of our franchise. We want to thank our employees and our former employees. They have made this possible.”

E.P. Severns, Jr. passed away at 8:55 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, at Primrose Assisted Living. He was
 born in Kokomo, on Aug. 16, 1930, to Edmond P. and Barbara (Beeson) Severns.
 
He graduated from Kokomo High School in 1949, and he married his high school sweetheart, Virginia Pierce, 
Oct. 1, 1950. It was a small ceremony with only two attendants. His father was the best man and dear family
friend, Margot Maddox, was the maid of honor.
 
He attended IU Kokomo when it was still located in the Seiberling Mansion. 

He served in the US Army soon after getting married and was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas and Camp Roberts
in California. When he left the army, he returned to Kokomo and joined the family business, Coca-Cola Bottling 
Company of Kokomo. 

Edmond P. Severns and his brothers, Frank and Roy, purchased the company in 1935   and it serviced the 
Logansport and Peru territories as well as the Kokomo territory. Roy lived and worked in  Logansport and was 
the president. Frank lived in Indianapolis and worked at the Coca-Cola plant in Indianapolis  as vice-president.   

Edmond was never active in the day to day operations. He spent his career at Continental Steel in Kokomo 
rising to president and later chairman of the board. 

In 1944, the Severns brothers purchased the Coca-Cola franchise in Elwood. E.P. started working his way up 
through the business. On Jan. 1, 1959, Frank and Roy both retired and E.P. became the president. He held 
that position until Jan. 1, 2019 when his son, Craig, was named the president. E.P. held that position for an 
amazing 60 years!

He is survived by his sons, Craig (Kristi) Severns and Tim (Trish) Severns; his daughter, Susan (Francis Ellert);
 and his grandchildren John McCullough, Nikki Severns, Ally Severns, Betse Ellert, Pierce Ellert, Fritz Ellert and 
 Cabot Ellert. He is also survived by his son-in-law, Jack McCullough. 
 
E.P. was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Virginia; his sister, Diane; and his daughter, Betse Severns 
 McCullough.
 
He served on many boards and committees. He was one of only a handful of Hoosiers who served on the 
National Soft Drink Association Board. He served on the Indiana Soft Drink Association Board which later 
became the Hoosier Beverage Association Board. He was the longest serving member of that board in the 
history of the organization with a tenure over 40 years.

He served for many years on the board of Union Bank and Trust. After going through several mergers and 
 name changes, it is now known as KeyBank. He later served on the board of First Farmers Bank and Trust. 
 
He served on the St. Joseph Hospital Advisory Board and on the boards of Ivy Tech and Kokomo 
 Development Corp. He was a charter member of the Kokomo Schools Education Foundation and helped 
 Frank Moore and Garry Williams get that organization started. He was a member of the Kokomo Rotary 
 Club for over 50 years. He was honored for being a 50 year member with his good friends, Don Button, 
 Elwood "Bud" Hillis, Jim Meck and John Maher. We think John Maher might have been the longest serving 
 Rotarian in the state of Indiana as he was a member for an astounding 80 years!

E.P. was a lifelong member of Grace United Methodist Church where he was active on various committees. 

When he was in Culver, he regularly attended and supported Wesley United Methodist Church. 

E.P. has been given some very nice recognition throughout his career. Beverage World named him to their 
hall of fame. In his working career, he saw the number of Coca-Cola franchises go from around 1200 when
he started in the business to less than 70 ownership groups by the time he retired. Over his decades long 
career, he made life-long friendships with dozens of other bottlers across the country. Many of these 
cherished relationships have resulted in perpetuated friendships for the next generations. 
 
He is a member of the Howard County Sports Hall of Fame. He is a member of the Howard County Historical 
Society Hall of Legends. He received the distinguished service award from the Boy Scouts of America. An 
honor he was especially proud of was receiving the Sagamore of the Wabash from Rep. Mike Karickhoff.
 
He and Virginia loved their family, friends and the 62 ½ years they spent together as husband and wife. They 
traveled extensively and went on many cruises and traveled to many states and foreign countries. 

They attended the western sales annual meeting for Coca-Cola bottlers in Palm Springs, Calif. every February 
for more than 20 years. This also became like a second home to them reconnecting every year with not only 
Coca-Cola friends, but also many guests and hotel staff members who became as close as family. 

The one other place they loved as much as Kokomo was Lake Maxinkuckee and Culver. E.P. spent his summers 
there as a child and he was always proud that he celebrated his first birthday there. He attended Woodcraft 
Camp in 1940 and was in the Naval School during the summers of 1944-1946 where he was in Naval Company 
1. He was always an avid supporter of the academies and sat on the board of the Culver Summer School 
Alumni Association for several years. 

He and Virginia were always very proud that both of their daughters and all 7 of their grandchildren graduated 
from Culver Summer School. Betse and Pierce have graduated and Fritz and Cabot are currently attending 
Culver Academies. Additionally, John graduated from Butler, Nikki from IU and is currently attending graduate 
school and Ally is an IU senior.

The family wants to thank Primrose Assisted Living, Comfort Keepers and Kindred Hospice for the loving care 
they gave E.P. He and his family truly enjoyed the new friendships they made with those health care 
professionals and also with the residents of Primrose. We have received hundreds of messages of support and 
love and respect for him. They mention his kindness, his generosity, his friendship, his happiness and his big 
smile and his devotion to his wife, his family, his employees and to this community at large. Speaking of the 
big smile, he never took a bad picture in his life until he was in his 80's and made those last two trips to the 
BMV. Not even E.P. could get a good photo there!

He had many good friends and many of them were people he and mom went to school with. The friendship 
he had with Don Button was truly special. We ate 100's of meals with those two. They shared thousands of 
meals through the years, many thousands. There were two things that Don and all of the rest of us knew 
we would hear from dad every single day. He was going to talk about the weather and he was going to talk 
about the plans for the next meal. Typically, he was still in the middle of a meal when the planning started for 
the next one. There were many people that got to spend time in the company of dad and Don when they 
were together and I doubt if a single person was ever disappointed by that visit.

There are many wonderful stories about E.P. and the Coca-Cola business and we want to share this story. 
When E.P. was young, he was running routes and delivering product for Coca-Cola Kokomo. He went to the 
VFW on N Washington Street in Kokomo. It had a long driveway and he always tried to back the truck in that 
driveway because he then had a much shorter distance to wheel the cases. There was a vehicle blocking the 
driveway so he had to park on the street. He entered the VFW and there were only two people inside, a 
bartender and a man sitting at the bar drinking a beer. E.P. asked the men if they knew who the green 
Dodge belonged to. The man sitting at the bar said in a nasty voice, it's none of your business who that green 
Dodge belongs. E.P. didn't say anything, he just started to take care of the delivery. He rounded up all of the 
empty bottles and wheeled those out and loaded them on his truck. He then loaded up all of the full cases 
and wheeled them in and stacked them in the storage room. He then did his paperwork and took that to the 
bartender and received payment. As he reached the door to leave he turned to the two men and said in a l
oud voice "I know it isn't any of my business who that green Dodge belongs to, but if you ever find out who 
that is please let them know it has been on fire since I arrived here"!

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in E.P.'s memory to Grace United Methodist Church 
and/or Community Foundation of Howard County and/or Culver Educational Foundation-Summer Endowment, 
or to the charity of the donor's choice.

Shirley & Stout Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements. Messages of condolence may be left 
online at www.shirleyandstout.com. Because of the Covid-19 virus, a memorial service will be planned for a 
later date. -  Pilot News on Apr. 23, 2020