James Franklin Cox

James Franklin Cox

• Father: Van Buren Cox
• Mother: Julia Minerva Compton

• James Franklin Cox was born on 2 April 1878 in McLeansboro, Hamilton County, Illinois.
• He married Mary Melissa Hayes, daughter of Hugh Lawson Hayes and Susan Margaret Goree, on 28 July 1910 in Madison County, Texas.
• James Franklin Cox and Mary Melissa Hayes appeared in the US federal census of 1 April 1940 in Abilene, Taylor County, Texas. Other members of the household included Mary Goree Cox, James Franklin Cox Jr. and Margaret Minerva Cox.
• He was employed as president of a college, according to the 1940 census.
• The following appeared on 23 May 1946 in The Abilene Reporter-News: Margaret Cox, 18, Younger daughter of M. and Mrs. James F. Cox, 725 E. N. 15th St., died unexpectedly Wednesday afternoon after collapsing on the campus of Abilene Christian college where she was a junior student.
       Funeral arrangments, in charge of Kiker-Warren Funeral home, are pending.
       The girl collapsed near the college administration building about 7 p. m. and was dead when a physician arrived. Efforts of fellow students to give first aid and artificial respiration were to no avail.
        Miss Cox was born i Abilene. Her father, a professor of Bible at ACC, has been on the faculty for 26 years and was president of the college from 1932 to 1940.
       President Don Morris described as a high ranking student who was active in campus affairs.
       Survivors are the parents, a brother, Lt. J. F. Cox, Jr., navy medical officer serving his internship at the navy hospital at Corona, Calif., and a sister, Mrs. Ernest C. Thompson of Houston.
• At the time of his death James Franklin Cox was living in Abilene, Taylor County, Texas, at 726 E. N. 15th.
• James Franklin Cox died on 30 September 1968 at age 90 in Abilene, Taylor County, Texas, at Cox Memorial Hospital . His death was officially witnessed by Mary Melissa Hayes.
• His wife Mary Melissa Hayes became a widow at his death.
• He was interred at Abilene Municipal Cemetery, Abilene, Taylor County, Texas.
• The following appeared on 11 June 1976 in The Abilene Reporter-News: The widow of an early day president of Abilene Christian University and well-known Big Country educator died in Houston's Parkway Hospital Thursday after a five-week illlness.
       Mary Melisa Hayes Cox, 91, of Houston died at 4:10 p.m. Thursday. Her husband, Jack F. Cox Sr., was president of ACU twqice -- once from 1911 to 1912 and again from 1932 to 1940. He also was president of Lingleville Christian University in Lingleville in Erath County before beginning his service with ACU, then Childers Classical Institute, when the college opened in 1906, and again for two years during stints with ACU.
       Mr. Cox also was president of John Tarleton College, now Tarleton State University, in the 1910s and was the last president of Tarleton State before it was taken over by the state.
       Mrs. Cox, a Benjamin native and daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Hayes, med Mr. Cox at East Austin Church of Christ in Austin while she was attending high school and he was attending the University of Texas. They married July 28, 1910, at her parents' home in Midway, near Huntsville.
       Mrs. Cox was born Dec. 14, 1881, and was reared in Midway. She was living with relatives in Austin while attending high school when she met Mr. Cox.
       After their marriage, Mr. Cox became president of Childers Classical Institute in 1911. He resigned a year later because of mrs. Cox's ill health.
       They moved to Stephenville, where Mr. Cox was president of Tarleton for six years. They then moved to Nashville, Tenn., where Mr. Cox attended George Peabody College to work on a doctorate.
       The couple returned to Abilene -- and a long relationship with Abilene Christian -- in 1920. Between then and April 1951, when Mr. Cox gave his last chapel talk, he again served as president of the college and saw it through the Great Depression.
       Mrs. Cox was a longtime member of College Church of Christ before moving to Houston in 1969 after Mr. Cox died in 1968. She was a housewife.
       Services for Mrs. Cox will be at 4 p.m. Saturday at Elliott-Hamil Chapel of Memories, 542 Hickory.
       Walter H. Adams, dean emeritus of Abilene Christian University, will officiate, assisted by Lawrence L. Smith. Burial will be in Cedar Hill Cemetery.
       Survivors include a daughter, Mrs. E. C. (Mary Goree) Thompson of Richardson; a son, Dr. James F. Cox Jr. of Houston; a sister, Mrs. J. N. (Sudie) Pyle of Dallas; a brother, Dr. Herbert T. Hayes of Houston; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
       A daughter, Margaret, died in 1946.
       Pallbearers will be Russell Lewis Cox, James F. Cox III, W. B. Mullins, Jim Haggard, Van B. Haggard and Jesse A. Britt.
       The family will be at the home of Mr. and Mrs. L. A. Britt, 2501 Campus Court.

• Last Edited: 30 Jun 2017