James S. "Stan" Cox

JAMES S. STAN COX James Stanley Stan Cox, 84, Bolivar, died Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at Citizens Memorial Healthcare Facility after a lingering illness. Stan was born September 22, 1925 in the sandhills of Nebraska in the then boomtown of Belgrade, Nebraska to Mabel and Albert Cox. The family later moved to the bigger community of Albion, Nebraska. 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, NE on December 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 2 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, NE, which was owned by the Orpheum Theater Corp who at that time also employed another 21 year old at their Omaha, NE location, Johnny Carson. The G. I. Bill allowed Stan to enter classes in 1948 at Drake University in Des Moines, IA 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 #1 and #2 until 1972. In 1972 Stan bought the #1 location on the square in Bolivar and ran it as Stan s Good Drug Store for over 25 years, selling the business to Dan McHan in 1998. Putting his WWII 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 is his wife of 17 years, Dottie Cox, of the home; a daughter, Lu Ann Bean Mangold, Melbourne, FL, a professor at Florida Technical Institue; a son, Kevin W. Cox, Rogersville, a pharmacist following in his father s footsteps; two step-sons, Roger Hammer, Buffalo and Randy Hammer, Buffalo; a granddaughter, Stephanie Bean, Fayetteville, AR, a grandson, Ben Cox, Orange, CA: one brother, Donald Eugene Cox, Ocala, FL; three nieces; and two nephews. Funeral services will be at 2:00 PM Saturday, October 31, 2009 in Murray Funeral Home, Bolivar, with Rev. Dan Adkison officiating. Interment will be in Greenwood Cemetery. Visitation will be from 1:00 to 2:00 PM Saturday. PDF Printable Version

James S. "Stan" Cox

September 22, 1925 - October 28, 2009