Graveside services for Jean Evelyn Cox, a Sitka resident since 1960, will be held at Sitka National Cemetery 1 p.m. Tuesday, June 16.
Jean died June 6 at her home here. She was 93.
She was born May 27, 1922, in Willits, Calif., to Greba Mosley Palmer and Jack F. Palmer. Her parents divorced when she was an infant, and her mother married Warren J. Tobey when Jean was 2 years old. Jean always claimed him as her father because he was always there for her throughout his life.
Jean was raised in the Malone, Wash., area and attended Malone Grade School, first through eight grades. She graduated from the Elma High School in Elma, Wash., in 1941.
In the spring of 1941 she moved to Shelton, Wash., with her family and went to work for the Shelton Credit Bureau. A year later she moved to Port Townsend, Wash., and worked in the Quartermaster’s Office as a purchase order clerk at Fort Worden, Wash., until May 1945.
Jean married Sgt. Kenneth F. Cox on Jan. 14, 1945, in the Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Shelton, and they established their first home. A son, Gerald F. Cox, was born in Shelton on April 3, 1948.
On June 4, 1960, Jean and son Jerry moved to Sitka to join Kenneth, who had been working at the Alaska Lumber and Pulp mill since startup in November 1959.
Jean worked for the Sears Roebuck catalog office as a clerk typist for more than 20 years, retiring Dec. 31, 1989.
Jean was a member of the Sitka Lutheran Church, beginning on April 9, 1961, and served on the Altar Guild as a director, and secretary/treasurer as well as a member for more than 46 years.
Jean once showed her family a writing by Robert N. Test, printed in the Cincinnati Post in 1977, that she liked. The last lines were: “If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.”
Jean’s husband, Kenneth, and her son, Jerry, preceded her in death.
She is survived by her daughter-in-law Beth Cox, of Sitka; grandsons Paul Cox of Cleveland, Ohio, and Kenneth Cox of Skagway; and granddaughters Jennifer Hayes of Kenai and Samantha Cox of Sitka.
Her great-grandchildren are Trevor Cox, Madison, Kenadie and Kelsey Cox of Skagway; Sebastian and Benjamin Cox of Cleveland; Jimmy and Jerry Blades of Sitka; and Maite Cox McGraw of Sitka.
