May 8, 1914 - July 24, 2003

by Willard Seymour “Tom” Taylor, Jr., All Saints Episcopal Church, Hamlet, NC, 2015

Frances Jean Cox was born in Eden, North Carolina (then known as Leaksville-Spray), a daughter of Foster Nugent Cox and Virginia Mae Johnson. An attorney before his ordination to the Episcopal priesthood in 1945, Foster served churches first in the Diocese of East Carolina, and then in Tarboro, Hamlet and Laurinburg.

In addition to Frances, the Cox children included Maxine, Betty Ann and Howard. Frances married Willard Seymour Taylor and they lived with their two sons, Timothy Nugent and Willard Seymour, Jr. (“Tom”) in Rockingham, North Carolina. Tom and Tim both attended college in North Carolina, then Tom attended seminary and served as an Episcopal priest until his retirement. Tim had a career as a math professor at James Madison University. Maxine and her husband, “Doc” Davis, and their two children lived in Hamlet, near Rockingham.

Frances was very attractive, highly intelligent and had a very vivacious personality. She was usually the center of attention wherever she was. She was devoted to her husband, her sons and her many friends.

A deeply spiritual person, Frances loved art and was an artist herself, producing many paintings and drawings through the years. She studied art for many years at the Attic Gallery of Greensboro. She was delighted when her earlier sketch of All Saints’ Church in Hamlet was re-ordered, and it has been used since December 1984 on the cover of the bulletin for All Saints.

Frances died in 2003 at Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst and her funeral was held at the Episcopal Church of the Messiah in Rockingham, North Carolina. She was buried in the churchyard at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough, North Carolina.