Joyce Cox Obituary

MEMORIAL SERVICE
Saturday, November 9, 2024 at 3:00 pm
St Alban's Episcopal Church
210 N Broad Street
Monroe, Georgia 30655
Please deliver all flowers to the church.
OBITUARY
Joyce Sowders Cox, of Monroe, Georgia, passed away on 26 September 2024 at the wonderful age of 98 years and four days old! By any measure, she lived an unusual, full, and interesting life. As her granddaughter said so perfectly, we will always remember her through her puzzles, gardening, her routine of "wine and a bowl of chips" every day at noon, and her fiercely opinionated personality.
Adopted at birth, Joyce grew up on a small East Texas farm outside of Kosse, Texas. In 1947, she graduated with a BA degree from the University of Texas. To satisfy her sense of wanderlust, in 1950 Joyce joined the United States Foreign Service. Only 24 years old and having never been outside the state of Texas, her first Foreign Service assignment was to the U.S. Mission in post-World War II Frankfurt, Germany. After this difficult and challenging posting, Joyce next journeyed to the Far East to work in the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, where she met Walter Cox, a career CIA Officer and her future husband. After their marriage, the two went on to travel the world for work and pleasure. Among their places of assignment/residence were East and West Pakistan (Dhaka and Karachi), Lebanon (Beirut), Iraq (Baghdad), Turkey (Ankara), and India (Bombay). While in the U.S. between overseas tours, they resided in the Washington, D.C, suburb of Annandale, Virginia. In retirement, they first moved to Savannah, Georgia, before settling in the mid-1990's into the Cox family home in Monroe, Georgia.
During her lifetime, Joyce was an outstanding amateur artist as well as a talented floral designer. She enjoyed her duties as president of several garden clubs and, for many years, also ran a wedding flower business. In her life in Monroe, she attended St. Alban's Episcopal Church, was a member of the Delphian's, a friend of the Monroe-Walton County Library and the Walton County Historical Society, and a member of the Special Forces Club in London, England.
Joyce was preceded in death by her husband Walter (2000). She leaves behind her daughter Zahra Cox Richards (Robert Richards) and son Wally Cox Jr; grandchildren Elizabeth Richards Shade (Gregory), Cameron Richards (Caroline), Carson Richards, and Savannah Richards; and 5 great grandchildren (Elijah, Isaiah, Noah, Justin, and Leia).
A memorial service will be held on 9
November at 3pm at St. Albans Episcopal church in Monroe. A reception
will follow at the Cox residence, 300 Walton St.
In
lieu of flowers, the family requests that you donate to The Gertrude
& Walter Scott Robison Endowed Scholarship at Young Harris College.
Please mail your checks to the address below or go to yhc.edu/giving/online-giving and
select The Gertrude & Walter Scott Robison Endowed Scholarship from the drop-down menu.
Meadows Funeral Home, Inc. was in charge of arrangements.