Inez Carol Cox passed away on May 27th, 2011 at the Thomas Rest Haven in Coon Rapids. Funeral services will be held 10:00 am at Oak Hill Baptist Church on Saturday June 4, 2011. Visitation will be Fri. June 3, 2011 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at the Mason-Lindhart Funeral Home in Humboldt.
Inez was born Oct. 7th, 1916 to Robert and Harriet Karlen in Boyceville, WI. She had two younger sisters, Fern and Rose. Inez’s mother was a house wife, home maker, and took in washing and ironing, while being a mother to her 3 daughters. Her father was in business several times as a thrasher, sawmill operator and owned a gas station.
In Inez’s younger years, she would tag around her father at his work locations and was the ”so-called son”, her father never had. As a teenager, Inez managed the gas station in Downing, WI.
Inez’s family made two round trip moves between Wisconsin and Oregon. The first move was to Portland, Oregon. in 1934. Due to the “dust bowl” conditions, Inez’s father hadn’t used his thrashing equipment for two years. They sold out, went West to join up with one of her mother’s relatives. Her father was seeking work in the large lumber industry, but WPA work, was about all he got.
The first move to Portland only lasted about one year. Inez’s mother was sickly and wanted to return to Wisconsin. They returned to the same area they had left. By the late 1930’s, work and jobs in the US was better. In 1939 they all headed to Portland OR. again. Near the close of 1940, Inez met Francis Cox (her husband-to-be), through her sister Rose’s husband-to-be. Two US Army GI’s on leave in the Portland area, stationed at Ft. Lewis, WA.
Inez and Francis were married Feb. 16, 1941 in Tacoma, WA. The “war effort” was gearing up. Later that year, Francis’s army unit was moving to Ft. Ord, CA. Inez followed and they made their home in and around Monterey, CA. Their stay there was for less than a year. Francis left on troop train, headed for multiple Army bases, on the East Coast, to be sent to the European theater. Inez returned to Portland, to rejoin her family.
In 1943, Inez, her mother, father and sister Rose, moved back to Wisconsin eventually settling in New Richmond, WI. where her father found work. Francis returned from World War II in May 1945. It was home for the next 24 years, where they raised their three children, Darryl, Nancy and Carla. Inez was self-taught bookkeeper for her husband’s business. In Dec. 1967 Francis’s work and a patent he had brought the family into Humboldt. Francis went to work for Dodgen’s. To ward off a bad case of “home sickness” from New Richmond, Inez took a clerk job at Hood’s Grocery store. Approximately 10 months ago Inez became a resident of the Thomas Rest Haven in Coon Rapids which is near her daughter Carla’s home.
The Humboldt, Iowa community has been byfar, the longest of any one place, Inez has ever called home. Local friends and neighbors, many other friends and acquaintances from nearby towns all helped to put Inez’s home sickness “on the run”. She’s had a good life here and a long healthy one as well. She bids you all good bye with love, thanks and peace of mind.