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James S. Cox Bolivar, MO QCWA # 24686 Chapter 180 |
James S. Cox
(September 22, 1925 - October 28, 2009)
U.S. Veteran
James Stanley "Stan" Cox, 84, of Bolivar died Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009, at Citizens Memorial Healthcare Facility after a lingering illness.
Stan was born Sept. 22, 1925, in the sandhills of Nebraska in the then-boomtown of Belgrade, Nebraska, to Albert James & Mabel Edith (Edwards) Cox.
The family later moved to the bigger community of Albion, Neb. As a teenager, he learned how to run movie projectors and was much in demand at the local theatre. As a 16-year-old working at the Rex Theatre in Albion, Neb., on Dec. 7, 1941, he remembers stopping the movie that was playing so the theater manager could announce to the audience the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
He graduated from Albion High School in 1943. He joined the U. S. Navy in 1944 and was trained extensively to learn Morse Code and radio procedure, which led to him becoming a Radioman 3rd Class. He was assigned to the USS Eastland, an attack transport that was involved in the last big conflict of World War II, the battle of Okinawa. During that moment in history, the USS Eastland was credited with shooting down two Japanese Kamikaze planes before these terrors of the sky could kill any of our troops. Radioman Cox was also first aboard their ship to copy and pass along via the wireless the fateful news of the passing of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in April 1945.
After the war Stan went back to entertaining society by staying in the hot projector booth of the Jewell Theater in Valentine, Neb., which was owned by the Orpheum Theater Corp. who at that time also employed another 21-year-old, Johnny Carson, at their Omaha, Neb., location.
The G. I. Bill allowed Stan to enter classes in 1948 at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he earned his pharmacy degree in 1952. From 1952 until 1968, he worked at various pharmacies throughout Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.
His big break came in 1969 when he went into partnership with Lou Spainhower of Bolivar.
They ran Lou's Good Drug Store No. 1 and No. 2 until 1972. In 1972 Stan bought the No. 1 location on the square in Bolivar and ran it as Stan's Good Drug Store for more than 25 years, selling the business to Dan McHan in 1998.
Putting his World War II Morse Code training to good use, Stan had been an amateur radio operator since 1956 with the call sign of KOBFM and was a member of the local Lakes Area Amateur Radio Association Group, which maintains a local VHF radio repeater system that is used for emergency and public service issues, such as severe storm situations.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Mabel and Albert Cox; his wife of 34 years, Marjory Alice Cox in 1986; his sister, Lucille Butler; and just days earlier, his brother, Albert Gayland Cox.
Surviving are his wife of 17 years, Dottie Cox of the home; a daughter, Lu Ann Bean Mangold of Melbourne, Fla., a professor at Florida Technical Institute; a son, Kevin W. Cox of Rogersville, a pharmacist following in his father's footsteps; two stepsons, Roger Hammer and Randy Hammer, both of Buffalo; a granddaughter, Stephanie Bean, Fayetteville, Ark.; a grandson, Ben Cox of Orange, Calif.: one brother, Donald Eugene Cox of Ocala, Fla.; three nieces; and two nephews.
Services were at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, at Murray Funeral Home, Bolivar, with the Rev. Dan Adkison officiating. Burial was in Greenwood Cemetery in Bolivar. Visitation was from 1 to 2 p.m. Saturday before services in the funeral home. Online condolences may be made at http://www.murrayfuneralhomes.com/