James Kermit, or "Kermit" as most folks knew him was born June 12, 1910 in Pineville, KY. He was the son of James and Susie Peace Cox. He married Fannie Parks (age 16) on October 21, 1933, in Pineville. Fannie recalled seeing Kermit for the first time as he walked down the railroad track. She thought "he sure is good lookin" :)
Kermit was a coal-miner in KY from the early age of 14. He worked hard most of his life. During his mining years, he would often be in the mines all day long on his back. His wife Fannie told me he made between $5.00 - $7.00 a week back in those days. The floors of the mines would have water on them and Kermit would come home both dirty and soaked wet. My mother told me that as a child, it was her and her siblings job to fetch water that was heated on the coal stove and then carried out to the wash tub for her father to bathe in when he came home dirty with coal dust each evening. Most everyone coal-mined for a living in the area. It was hard, dangerous work and many lost their lives in these mines. Kermit sustained a broken leg during his mining years, and his brother Arthur had his back broken during a mine cave in. They lived on what is now known as "Old Cross road"
The small house mom lived in growing up in the coal mining area of Kentucky was built by her father Kermit and Uncle Mendal. Papaw Cox wasn't much good at building but his brother Mendal was. The piece of property was given to Papaw Kermit by his father. It sat between the railroad tracks on one side and the creek on the other. The creek was where they got their water for everything. In the summer they would put food in the creek to keep it cool. Mom remembers the creek flooding and they would take all the furniture from the house and the layer of thick mud they would have to remove from the entire house before they could move back in.
A memory mother shared as a child was that she and her brother Charles were picking blackberries along the track one day and the train stopped. They wondered in amazement as to why the conductor had stopped the train. The Conductor yelled out to them, "I'll give you a dollar for that pail of berries". Mother (Helen) said that was a good bit of money back then and they were happy for it.
Mom said that hobos would jump off the train that ran long side their home and ask for something to eat. Fannie would tell them to sit on the step and she would go in and get them beans and cornbread. They would thank her and then be on there way. This house consisted of two rooms. In the first room was where the entire family slept, along with a coal stove to stay warm and a couple of chairs. In the second room was the stove to cook on and a table and chairs to sit to eat. They would add a third room on in later years. They did not get electric until my mother was about 14. She said that they told the children not to touch the "juice" pole that it would kill them.
For heat, they would bring in a "ton" of coal and drop it away from the house. Sometimes they would run short on coal. When the creek was low, there was a "island" in the middle upstream. During a flood, the water would carry bits of coal down from the coal mine above. When the water receded, Mamaw Cox would take the children to the island and they would use picks to gather coal and bring it home in burlap sacks. They got their fresh drinking water from a nearby mountain spring. Though they washed their clothing and quilts on a washboard in the creek, the creek was too polluted back then to drink straight from it due to the coal mining camps outhouses and such.
Helen remembers her father Kermit taking her and brother Charles to the movies. They would walk to the train and then take the train in to see a picture show. In the 1940 Census, Kermit is 30-years-old, Fannie 21, Charles 5 and my mother Helen 3. Kermit's brother Mendal lives nearby.
The photo of Fannie on the porch of their home was taken years after they had moved North and mom and dad brought Fannie back to see the old house. What was left of the old home would be washed away in the 70s during a large area flood.
The large coal mines started shutting down around the Middlesboro area in the late 40s, early 50s and it became harder and harder to find work in the area.
In the early 1950s, Kermit's oldest son Charles would travel from Kentucky to Monroe, MI with his Aunt Catherine. Charles would get a job in Monroe at the Ford Motor Company and then send money home to Kentucky for the rest of the family to follow. Kermit came to Monroe in 1955. He had hoped to work for Ford, but due to a bad eye (botched cataract surgery) could not pass their physical. Fannie did say that they still fared better in Michigan. Though she loved Kentucky, life was easier for her in Michigan.
My mother, Fannie's daughter Helen, started her 11th year of High School in Monroe. She would meet my father in Monroe (he had also moved to Michigan from the South). They would remain in Monroe and move to Grand Haven, MI in the early 60s.
Kermit worked 12 years for the Marlow Fence Co., before retiring in 1974. I believe the Cox family had asthma in it's history, as my mother suffers with breathing issues, especially as she ages. Many of us, the next generation and beyond have asthma/breathing issues.
Over the years of coal mining, Kermit developed black lung. I recall his having a "primatine mist" always nearby. The lung damage would take it's toll over the years. Kermit would die suddenly of a heart attack.
Children included: Sons - Charles, Houston and Paul. Daughters Helen (Thomas Miller), Sylvia (Gerald Siebert), and Vickie (James Copi)
Two brothers were still surviving at his passing: Foster of Lexington and Bertel of Texas, along with three sisters, Lola Shelby of Romulus, Goldie Wilson of Middlesboro, KY, and Geneva Lee of Louisville, KY.
Kermit was a quiet and reserved man. He seldom smiled and was on the quiet side. He chewed tobacco. I recall he would pour his coffee from the cup into the saucer to cool down and then drank from the saucer.
Kermit did all the driving and enjoyed cars. I believe he enjoyed traveling and traveled often South to visit kin in Kentucky and North to Grand Haven to visit us from Monroe.
After Kermit passed, Fannie lived for close to 20 years in a large senior housing complex at on N. Roessler. She loved her little apartment. Security, laundry just down the hall and a great place to make friends with your neighbors. My mother said Fannie enjoyed that she could see out her window kids playing at school and baseball games being played. I remember being able to hear the trains nearby. They had a nice place you could go sit by the river around back. I recall sitting out there with my dad on a visit. My parents would visit every year for a week or two at a time. They slept on a foldout couch Fannie always had in the living room.
Fannie "twiddled" her thumbs and she never learned how to drive, her initial try landing her in a corn field:) Fannie was a cook at the "Busy Bee" in Monroe for years and therefore a great cook of the traditional southern style. She worked hard most of her life, but enjoyed 20 years of retirement in the large River Raisin apartment complex on Roessler in Monroe. She was a close friend to Kermit's sister Goldie.
I recall she did most of her cooking in a cast iron skillet. She cooked her breakfast eggs on HIGH heat in the grease left over from the sausage or bacon. I remember as a child seeing green beans strung on a string and hanging in the closet to dry. She suffered with loss of hearing for years, which caused her and everyone around her to talk loud while visiting, ha.
She was a devout Christian, devoted to church and family. She loved to sing old southern hymns.
She didn't always have a easy life, but she did not complain. She was simply a good person with a true humble spirit.
Kermit and Fannie were proceeded in death in 1961 by one son, taken young in a car accident in Ohio. : Charles At the time, Charles was 26-years-old, with a great job at Fords, a wife and 4 small children.
Charles was the sole passenger in the car, driven by a friend. An oncoming car crossed the center line and hit them. There is no obituary for Charles, only a newpaper clipping of the accident included in the photos section here.
I do not know a lot about Charles. My mother seldom talks about the loss of her brother. I do know they were very close growing up, and she speaks fondly of her memories as young children. She has told me that Charles loved to fish as a young boy, such fish as "Red Eye" in KY. He also enjoyed swimming too, something his sister Helen never could do. Charles always called his little sister Helen, "Baby", even when they were both grown and by that time living in Monroe.
From the photos I have seen of Charles, he favored his father, and the Cox side of the family. I have been told that he was well liked by all.
As an adult, he visited the family often and enjoyed hanging around with them. He enjoyed playing jokes on the younger kids. His brother Houston once told me that Charles was a "prankster" and a fun loving and caring brother.
Kermit was a coal-miner in KY from the early age of 14. He worked hard most of his life. During his mining years, he would often be in the mines all day long on his back. His wife Fannie told me he made between $5.00 - $7.00 a week back in those days. The floors of the mines would have water on them and Kermit would come home both dirty and soaked wet. My mother told me that as a child, it was her and her siblings job to fetch water that was heated on the coal stove and then carried out to the wash tub for her father to bathe in when he came home dirty with coal dust each evening. Most everyone coal-mined for a living in the area. It was hard, dangerous work and many lost their lives in these mines. Kermit sustained a broken leg during his mining years, and his brother Arthur had his back broken during a mine cave in. They lived on what is now known as "Old Cross road"
The small house mom lived in growing up in the coal mining area of Kentucky was built by her father Kermit and Uncle Mendal. Papaw Cox wasn't much good at building but his brother Mendal was. The piece of property was given to Papaw Kermit by his father. It sat between the railroad tracks on one side and the creek on the other. The creek was where they got their water for everything. In the summer they would put food in the creek to keep it cool. Mom remembers the creek flooding and they would take all the furniture from the house and the layer of thick mud they would have to remove from the entire house before they could move back in.
A memory mother shared as a child was that she and her brother Charles were picking blackberries along the track one day and the train stopped. They wondered in amazement as to why the conductor had stopped the train. The Conductor yelled out to them, "I'll give you a dollar for that pail of berries". Mother (Helen) said that was a good bit of money back then and they were happy for it.
Mom said that hobos would jump off the train that ran long side their home and ask for something to eat. Fannie would tell them to sit on the step and she would go in and get them beans and cornbread. They would thank her and then be on there way. This house consisted of two rooms. In the first room was where the entire family slept, along with a coal stove to stay warm and a couple of chairs. In the second room was the stove to cook on and a table and chairs to sit to eat. They would add a third room on in later years. They did not get electric until my mother was about 14. She said that they told the children not to touch the "juice" pole that it would kill them.
For heat, they would bring in a "ton" of coal and drop it away from the house. Sometimes they would run short on coal. When the creek was low, there was a "island" in the middle upstream. During a flood, the water would carry bits of coal down from the coal mine above. When the water receded, Mamaw Cox would take the children to the island and they would use picks to gather coal and bring it home in burlap sacks. They got their fresh drinking water from a nearby mountain spring. Though they washed their clothing and quilts on a washboard in the creek, the creek was too polluted back then to drink straight from it due to the coal mining camps outhouses and such.
Helen remembers her father Kermit taking her and brother Charles to the movies. They would walk to the train and then take the train in to see a picture show. In the 1940 Census, Kermit is 30-years-old, Fannie 21, Charles 5 and my mother Helen 3. Kermit's brother Mendal lives nearby.
The photo of Fannie on the porch of their home was taken years after they had moved North and mom and dad brought Fannie back to see the old house. What was left of the old home would be washed away in the 70s during a large area flood.
The large coal mines started shutting down around the Middlesboro area in the late 40s, early 50s and it became harder and harder to find work in the area.
In the early 1950s, Kermit's oldest son Charles would travel from Kentucky to Monroe, MI with his Aunt Catherine. Charles would get a job in Monroe at the Ford Motor Company and then send money home to Kentucky for the rest of the family to follow. Kermit came to Monroe in 1955. He had hoped to work for Ford, but due to a bad eye (botched cataract surgery) could not pass their physical. Fannie did say that they still fared better in Michigan. Though she loved Kentucky, life was easier for her in Michigan.
My mother, Fannie's daughter Helen, started her 11th year of High School in Monroe. She would meet my father in Monroe (he had also moved to Michigan from the South). They would remain in Monroe and move to Grand Haven, MI in the early 60s.
Kermit worked 12 years for the Marlow Fence Co., before retiring in 1974. I believe the Cox family had asthma in it's history, as my mother suffers with breathing issues, especially as she ages. Many of us, the next generation and beyond have asthma/breathing issues.
Over the years of coal mining, Kermit developed black lung. I recall his having a "primatine mist" always nearby. The lung damage would take it's toll over the years. Kermit would die suddenly of a heart attack.
Children included: Sons - Charles, Houston and Paul. Daughters Helen (Thomas Miller), Sylvia (Gerald Siebert), and Vickie (James Copi)
Two brothers were still surviving at his passing: Foster of Lexington and Bertel of Texas, along with three sisters, Lola Shelby of Romulus, Goldie Wilson of Middlesboro, KY, and Geneva Lee of Louisville, KY.
Kermit was a quiet and reserved man. He seldom smiled and was on the quiet side. He chewed tobacco. I recall he would pour his coffee from the cup into the saucer to cool down and then drank from the saucer.
Kermit did all the driving and enjoyed cars. I believe he enjoyed traveling and traveled often South to visit kin in Kentucky and North to Grand Haven to visit us from Monroe.
After Kermit passed, Fannie lived for close to 20 years in a large senior housing complex at on N. Roessler. She loved her little apartment. Security, laundry just down the hall and a great place to make friends with your neighbors. My mother said Fannie enjoyed that she could see out her window kids playing at school and baseball games being played. I remember being able to hear the trains nearby. They had a nice place you could go sit by the river around back. I recall sitting out there with my dad on a visit. My parents would visit every year for a week or two at a time. They slept on a foldout couch Fannie always had in the living room.
Fannie "twiddled" her thumbs and she never learned how to drive, her initial try landing her in a corn field:) Fannie was a cook at the "Busy Bee" in Monroe for years and therefore a great cook of the traditional southern style. She worked hard most of her life, but enjoyed 20 years of retirement in the large River Raisin apartment complex on Roessler in Monroe. She was a close friend to Kermit's sister Goldie.
I recall she did most of her cooking in a cast iron skillet. She cooked her breakfast eggs on HIGH heat in the grease left over from the sausage or bacon. I remember as a child seeing green beans strung on a string and hanging in the closet to dry. She suffered with loss of hearing for years, which caused her and everyone around her to talk loud while visiting, ha.
She was a devout Christian, devoted to church and family. She loved to sing old southern hymns.
She didn't always have a easy life, but she did not complain. She was simply a good person with a true humble spirit.
Kermit and Fannie were proceeded in death in 1961 by one son, taken young in a car accident in Ohio. : Charles At the time, Charles was 26-years-old, with a great job at Fords, a wife and 4 small children.
Charles was the sole passenger in the car, driven by a friend. An oncoming car crossed the center line and hit them. There is no obituary for Charles, only a newpaper clipping of the accident included in the photos section here.
I do not know a lot about Charles. My mother seldom talks about the loss of her brother. I do know they were very close growing up, and she speaks fondly of her memories as young children. She has told me that Charles loved to fish as a young boy, such fish as "Red Eye" in KY. He also enjoyed swimming too, something his sister Helen never could do. Charles always called his little sister Helen, "Baby", even when they were both grown and by that time living in Monroe.
From the photos I have seen of Charles, he favored his father, and the Cox side of the family. I have been told that he was well liked by all.
As an adult, he visited the family often and enjoyed hanging around with them. He enjoyed playing jokes on the younger kids. His brother Houston once told me that Charles was a "prankster" and a fun loving and caring brother.
James Kermit, or "Kermit" as most folks knew him was born June 12, 1910 in Pineville, KY. He was the son of James and Susie Peace Cox. He married Fannie Parks (age 16) on October 21, 1933, in Pineville. Fannie recalled seeing Kermit for the first time as he walked down the railroad track. She thought "he sure is good lookin" :)
Kermit was a coal-miner in KY from the early age of 14. He worked hard most of his life. During his mining years, he would often be in the mines all day long on his back. His wife Fannie told me he made between $5.00 - $7.00 a week back in those days. The floors of the mines would have water on them and Kermit would come home both dirty and soaked wet. My mother told me that as a child, it was her and her siblings job to fetch water that was heated on the coal stove and then carried out to the wash tub for her father to bathe in when he came home dirty with coal dust each evening. Most everyone coal-mined for a living in the area. It was hard, dangerous work and many lost their lives in these mines. Kermit sustained a broken leg during his mining years, and his brother Arthur had his back broken during a mine cave in. They lived on what is now known as "Old Cross road"
The small house mom lived in growing up in the coal mining area of Kentucky was built by her father Kermit and Uncle Mendal. Papaw Cox wasn't much good at building but his brother Mendal was. The piece of property was given to Papaw Kermit by his father. It sat between the railroad tracks on one side and the creek on the other. The creek was where they got their water for everything. In the summer they would put food in the creek to keep it cool. Mom remembers the creek flooding and they would take all the furniture from the house and the layer of thick mud they would have to remove from the entire house before they could move back in.
A memory mother shared as a child was that she and her brother Charles were picking blackberries along the track one day and the train stopped. They wondered in amazement as to why the conductor had stopped the train. The Conductor yelled out to them, "I'll give you a dollar for that pail of berries". Mother (Helen) said that was a good bit of money back then and they were happy for it.
Mom said that hobos would jump off the train that ran long side their home and ask for something to eat. Fannie would tell them to sit on the step and she would go in and get them beans and cornbread. They would thank her and then be on there way. This house consisted of two rooms. In the first room was where the entire family slept, along with a coal stove to stay warm and a couple of chairs. In the second room was the stove to cook on and a table and chairs to sit to eat. They would add a third room on in later years. They did not get electric until my mother was about 14. She said that they told the children not to touch the "juice" pole that it would kill them.
For heat, they would bring in a "ton" of coal and drop it away from the house. Sometimes they would run short on coal. When the creek was low, there was a "island" in the middle upstream. During a flood, the water would carry bits of coal down from the coal mine above. When the water receded, Mamaw Cox would take the children to the island and they would use picks to gather coal and bring it home in burlap sacks. They got their fresh drinking water from a nearby mountain spring. Though they washed their clothing and quilts on a washboard in the creek, the creek was too polluted back then to drink straight from it due to the coal mining camps outhouses and such.
Helen remembers her father Kermit taking her and brother Charles to the movies. They would walk to the train and then take the train in to see a picture show. In the 1940 Census, Kermit is 30-years-old, Fannie 21, Charles 5 and my mother Helen 3. Kermit's brother Mendal lives nearby.
The photo of Fannie on the porch of their home was taken years after they had moved North and mom and dad brought Fannie back to see the old house. What was left of the old home would be washed away in the 70s during a large area flood.
The large coal mines started shutting down around the Middlesboro area in the late 40s, early 50s and it became harder and harder to find work in the area.
In the early 1950s, Kermit's oldest son Charles would travel from Kentucky to Monroe, MI with his Aunt Catherine. Charles would get a job in Monroe at the Ford Motor Company and then send money home to Kentucky for the rest of the family to follow. Kermit came to Monroe in 1955. He had hoped to work for Ford, but due to a bad eye (botched cataract surgery) could not pass their physical. Fannie did say that they still fared better in Michigan. Though she loved Kentucky, life was easier for her in Michigan.
My mother, Fannie's daughter Helen, started her 11th year of High School in Monroe. She would meet my father in Monroe (he had also moved to Michigan from the South). They would remain in Monroe and move to Grand Haven, MI in the early 60s.
Kermit worked 12 years for the Marlow Fence Co., before retiring in 1974. I believe the Cox family had asthma in it's history, as my mother suffers with breathing issues, especially as she ages. Many of us, the next generation and beyond have asthma/breathing issues.
Over the years of coal mining, Kermit developed black lung. I recall his having a "primatine mist" always nearby. The lung damage would take it's toll over the years. Kermit would die suddenly of a heart attack.
Children included: Sons - Charles, Houston and Paul. Daughters Helen (Thomas Miller), Sylvia (Gerald Siebert), and Vickie (James Copi)
Two brothers were still surviving at his passing: Foster of Lexington and Bertel of Texas, along with three sisters, Lola Shelby of Romulus, Goldie Wilson of Middlesboro, KY, and Geneva Lee of Louisville, KY.
Kermit was a quiet and reserved man. He seldom smiled and was on the quiet side. He chewed tobacco. I recall he would pour his coffee from the cup into the saucer to cool down and then drank from the saucer.
Kermit did all the driving and enjoyed cars. I believe he enjoyed traveling and traveled often South to visit kin in Kentucky and North to Grand Haven to visit us from Monroe.
After Kermit passed, Fannie lived for close to 20 years in a large senior housing complex at on N. Roessler. She loved her little apartment. Security, laundry just down the hall and a great place to make friends with your neighbors. My mother said Fannie enjoyed that she could see out her window kids playing at school and baseball games being played. I remember being able to hear the trains nearby. They had a nice place you could go sit by the river around back. I recall sitting out there with my dad on a visit. My parents would visit every year for a week or two at a time. They slept on a foldout couch Fannie always had in the living room.
Fannie "twiddled" her thumbs and she never learned how to drive, her initial try landing her in a corn field:) Fannie was a cook at the "Busy Bee" in Monroe for years and therefore a great cook of the traditional southern style. She worked hard most of her life, but enjoyed 20 years of retirement in the large River Raisin apartment complex on Roessler in Monroe. She was a close friend to Kermit's sister Goldie.
I recall she did most of her cooking in a cast iron skillet. She cooked her breakfast eggs on HIGH heat in the grease left over from the sausage or bacon. I remember as a child seeing green beans strung on a string and hanging in the closet to dry. She suffered with loss of hearing for years, which caused her and everyone around her to talk loud while visiting, ha.
She was a devout Christian, devoted to church and family. She loved to sing old southern hymns.
She didn't always have a easy life, but she did not complain. She was simply a good person with a true humble spirit.
Kermit and Fannie were proceeded in death in 1961 by one son, taken young in a car accident in Ohio. : Charles At the time, Charles was 26-years-old, with a great job at Fords, a wife and 4 small children.
Charles was the sole passenger in the car, driven by a friend. An oncoming car crossed the center line and hit them. There is no obituary for Charles, only a newpaper clipping of the accident included in the photos section here.
I do not know a lot about Charles. My mother seldom talks about the loss of her brother. I do know they were very close growing up, and she speaks fondly of her memories as young children. She has told me that Charles loved to fish as a young boy, such fish as "Red Eye" in KY. He also enjoyed swimming too, something his sister Helen never could do. Charles always called his little sister Helen, "Baby", even when they were both grown and by that time living in Monroe.
From the photos I have seen of Charles, he favored his father, and the Cox side of the family. I have been told that he was well liked by all.
As an adult, he visited the family often and enjoyed hanging around with them. He enjoyed playing jokes on the younger kids. His brother Houston once told me that Charles was a "prankster" and a fun loving and caring brother.
Kermit was a coal-miner in KY from the early age of 14. He worked hard most of his life. During his mining years, he would often be in the mines all day long on his back. His wife Fannie told me he made between $5.00 - $7.00 a week back in those days. The floors of the mines would have water on them and Kermit would come home both dirty and soaked wet. My mother told me that as a child, it was her and her siblings job to fetch water that was heated on the coal stove and then carried out to the wash tub for her father to bathe in when he came home dirty with coal dust each evening. Most everyone coal-mined for a living in the area. It was hard, dangerous work and many lost their lives in these mines. Kermit sustained a broken leg during his mining years, and his brother Arthur had his back broken during a mine cave in. They lived on what is now known as "Old Cross road"
The small house mom lived in growing up in the coal mining area of Kentucky was built by her father Kermit and Uncle Mendal. Papaw Cox wasn't much good at building but his brother Mendal was. The piece of property was given to Papaw Kermit by his father. It sat between the railroad tracks on one side and the creek on the other. The creek was where they got their water for everything. In the summer they would put food in the creek to keep it cool. Mom remembers the creek flooding and they would take all the furniture from the house and the layer of thick mud they would have to remove from the entire house before they could move back in.
A memory mother shared as a child was that she and her brother Charles were picking blackberries along the track one day and the train stopped. They wondered in amazement as to why the conductor had stopped the train. The Conductor yelled out to them, "I'll give you a dollar for that pail of berries". Mother (Helen) said that was a good bit of money back then and they were happy for it.
Mom said that hobos would jump off the train that ran long side their home and ask for something to eat. Fannie would tell them to sit on the step and she would go in and get them beans and cornbread. They would thank her and then be on there way. This house consisted of two rooms. In the first room was where the entire family slept, along with a coal stove to stay warm and a couple of chairs. In the second room was the stove to cook on and a table and chairs to sit to eat. They would add a third room on in later years. They did not get electric until my mother was about 14. She said that they told the children not to touch the "juice" pole that it would kill them.
For heat, they would bring in a "ton" of coal and drop it away from the house. Sometimes they would run short on coal. When the creek was low, there was a "island" in the middle upstream. During a flood, the water would carry bits of coal down from the coal mine above. When the water receded, Mamaw Cox would take the children to the island and they would use picks to gather coal and bring it home in burlap sacks. They got their fresh drinking water from a nearby mountain spring. Though they washed their clothing and quilts on a washboard in the creek, the creek was too polluted back then to drink straight from it due to the coal mining camps outhouses and such.
Helen remembers her father Kermit taking her and brother Charles to the movies. They would walk to the train and then take the train in to see a picture show. In the 1940 Census, Kermit is 30-years-old, Fannie 21, Charles 5 and my mother Helen 3. Kermit's brother Mendal lives nearby.
The photo of Fannie on the porch of their home was taken years after they had moved North and mom and dad brought Fannie back to see the old house. What was left of the old home would be washed away in the 70s during a large area flood.
The large coal mines started shutting down around the Middlesboro area in the late 40s, early 50s and it became harder and harder to find work in the area.
In the early 1950s, Kermit's oldest son Charles would travel from Kentucky to Monroe, MI with his Aunt Catherine. Charles would get a job in Monroe at the Ford Motor Company and then send money home to Kentucky for the rest of the family to follow. Kermit came to Monroe in 1955. He had hoped to work for Ford, but due to a bad eye (botched cataract surgery) could not pass their physical. Fannie did say that they still fared better in Michigan. Though she loved Kentucky, life was easier for her in Michigan.
My mother, Fannie's daughter Helen, started her 11th year of High School in Monroe. She would meet my father in Monroe (he had also moved to Michigan from the South). They would remain in Monroe and move to Grand Haven, MI in the early 60s.
Kermit worked 12 years for the Marlow Fence Co., before retiring in 1974. I believe the Cox family had asthma in it's history, as my mother suffers with breathing issues, especially as she ages. Many of us, the next generation and beyond have asthma/breathing issues.
Over the years of coal mining, Kermit developed black lung. I recall his having a "primatine mist" always nearby. The lung damage would take it's toll over the years. Kermit would die suddenly of a heart attack.
Children included: Sons - Charles, Houston and Paul. Daughters Helen (Thomas Miller), Sylvia (Gerald Siebert), and Vickie (James Copi)
Two brothers were still surviving at his passing: Foster of Lexington and Bertel of Texas, along with three sisters, Lola Shelby of Romulus, Goldie Wilson of Middlesboro, KY, and Geneva Lee of Louisville, KY.
Kermit was a quiet and reserved man. He seldom smiled and was on the quiet side. He chewed tobacco. I recall he would pour his coffee from the cup into the saucer to cool down and then drank from the saucer.
Kermit did all the driving and enjoyed cars. I believe he enjoyed traveling and traveled often South to visit kin in Kentucky and North to Grand Haven to visit us from Monroe.
After Kermit passed, Fannie lived for close to 20 years in a large senior housing complex at on N. Roessler. She loved her little apartment. Security, laundry just down the hall and a great place to make friends with your neighbors. My mother said Fannie enjoyed that she could see out her window kids playing at school and baseball games being played. I remember being able to hear the trains nearby. They had a nice place you could go sit by the river around back. I recall sitting out there with my dad on a visit. My parents would visit every year for a week or two at a time. They slept on a foldout couch Fannie always had in the living room.
Fannie "twiddled" her thumbs and she never learned how to drive, her initial try landing her in a corn field:) Fannie was a cook at the "Busy Bee" in Monroe for years and therefore a great cook of the traditional southern style. She worked hard most of her life, but enjoyed 20 years of retirement in the large River Raisin apartment complex on Roessler in Monroe. She was a close friend to Kermit's sister Goldie.
I recall she did most of her cooking in a cast iron skillet. She cooked her breakfast eggs on HIGH heat in the grease left over from the sausage or bacon. I remember as a child seeing green beans strung on a string and hanging in the closet to dry. She suffered with loss of hearing for years, which caused her and everyone around her to talk loud while visiting, ha.
She was a devout Christian, devoted to church and family. She loved to sing old southern hymns.
She didn't always have a easy life, but she did not complain. She was simply a good person with a true humble spirit.
Kermit and Fannie were proceeded in death in 1961 by one son, taken young in a car accident in Ohio. : Charles At the time, Charles was 26-years-old, with a great job at Fords, a wife and 4 small children.
Charles was the sole passenger in the car, driven by a friend. An oncoming car crossed the center line and hit them. There is no obituary for Charles, only a newpaper clipping of the accident included in the photos section here.
I do not know a lot about Charles. My mother seldom talks about the loss of her brother. I do know they were very close growing up, and she speaks fondly of her memories as young children. She has told me that Charles loved to fish as a young boy, such fish as "Red Eye" in KY. He also enjoyed swimming too, something his sister Helen never could do. Charles always called his little sister Helen, "Baby", even when they were both grown and by that time living in Monroe.
From the photos I have seen of Charles, he favored his father, and the Cox side of the family. I have been told that he was well liked by all.
As an adult, he visited the family often and enjoyed hanging around with them. He enjoyed playing jokes on the younger kids. His brother Houston once told me that Charles was a "prankster" and a fun loving and caring brother.
