The Shawnee News Star
Jan 18 2009
Shawnee resident Lawanda Joann Cox went peacefully to be with her Lord on
Friday morning, Jan. 16, 2009, with her daughter Lisa and granddaughter, Nikki,
at her side.
Joann was born April 13, 1937 at Bromide, Okla. At the age of ten she
moved with her family to a farm west of Shawnee where she attended and
graduated from Dale school in 1955.
She married Earnest John Cox in Shawnee March 17, 1956 and devoted
herself to raising their four children and helping with the farming for the next
several years. She then cared for her parents until the death of her mother
in 1981. Joann was a cook at Dale school for the next ten years; and for the
fourteen years prior to her retirement in 2004, she was bookkeeper at Akins
Hair Care in Oklahoma City.
Joann loved to cook and bake for her children, grandchildren, friends
and the children of Dale School. Her other love was for her flower garden,
especially her roses.
During the last four years of her life she brought her wit and humor
to Rose Manor where she made many new friends.
She was preceded in death by her eldest child, Steven Earnest Cox and
his wife and child, Debbie and Crystal Dawn. Also preceding her in death
were her parents, James and Ollie Dewberry; two brothers, Roy Lee and Homer
J. Dewberry; four sisters, Essie Thomas, Jewell Joplin, Ethel Boswell and
Winnie Purkey.
She is survived by her sister and best friend, Opal Akins of Oklahoma
City; her three children and spouses, Mike Cox and Barbara; Barbara Preston and
Gary; Lisa Cross and Tim, and their father, Earnest J. Cox, all of Shawnee,
six grandchildren, Abbie Riddle, of New Boston, Texas, Terra Cox, Nikki
Willliams, and Steven Columbus, all of Oklahoma City; John Preston of Shawnee
and Brad Cross of Duncan; along with eleven great-grandchildren, and numerous
nieces and nephews.
The Reverend Bill Matthews of Liberty Baptist Church will officiate
the services at Walker Funeral Home on Monday, Jan. 19,2009 at 2 p.m. with
burial at Little Cemetery.
