A Tribute to Lizzie Cox

.....In this photo, which was made a number of years ago, Lizzie is the lady third from the left with the cain. The lady with walker is her sister Sara who was visiting. On Lizzie's right is my wife Carolyn who then had dark hair. Her hair is now silver. The little girl in the front row is Sarah, and she is now married and has been living in South Dakota for five years. Five of the folks in the photo are no longer with us.

.....Born in a high mountain valley just below the summitt of the Big Ridge Section of Allegheny Mountain in Allegheny County, Virginia within "shoutin distance" of the West Virginia Border, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Sparks Cox was the daughter of a Primitive Baptist elder.

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Site of the Sparks Home Place

.....Joseph Sparks scraped out a living on the mountain and raised a huge family. Every child in the family knew what it meant to "work hard." In addition to working the farm, Joseph rode horseback to mountian churches where he preached the gospel according to the "lights" of the Primitiave Baptist Church." Joseph and his wife now rest in Dowdy Cemetery on a high point above Glace in the wilds of Northen Monroe County, West Virginia.

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Joseph Sparks baptizing his daughter in law at Glace in Laurel Creek. Joseph's son Electra, who seems to have just been baptized, looks on while his wife is baptized.

.....Like many other mountain families, the Sparks family exposed the myth that all farm children are raised on healthy food for what it is...a myth. It a time when cash was more than scarse, wholesome food such as eggs, fresh milk, butter, and chickens were bartered at the store for "esentials" like salt, sugar, perhaps coffee, and other things that could not be made on the mountain such as shoes. Children and parents alike were left with very poor fare. Sometimes the only thing to be had for supper was a bowl of Buttermilk and cornbread. Lizzie's son Woody still treasures a bowl of such fare. There would also be cornmush, brown beans, and "panfried" bread. When I was growing up, I also dined on such "eatables" simply because Dad liked these things. I still like fried corn mush, but I have never learned to make the fried bread nor have I ever aquired a taste for buttermilk.
.....I wish I could tell you about Lizzie's life as a little girl, but there is no way that I can do that. I can tell you that in the community that she grew up there was a Church, a one room school, Freidly's Store, and a mill. Although the mill is long gone, I know that it was similar to Mabrie's Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway because I showed an old man,who had lived on Big Ridge, the photo of Mabrie's Mill and he thought that it was the old mill on Big Ridge. There were quite a few families in the community then which is said to have been founded by deserters fromt he Confederate Army. The old church is still in use and the old school is now used as a "camp." However, the store and Lizzie's old home are gone and the sites are now overgrown. The fields that Joseph and the family once "worked" have now long returned to woods.
.....Lizzie married Daniel Hillman Cox and they lived for a number of years in a hollow high on the East side of Tuckahoe Valley not far from the divide that marks the boundary between Monroe and Greenbrier Counties. Along with a little farming, Lizzie and Hillman cut pulpwood to sell to WESTVACO at Covington, Virginia. When Woodson Patrick Cox came on the scene and grew big enough, he also joined the family working in the woods.

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..... Trees were "snaked" out by horse or mule power. Many times it was Lizzie who drove to old truck on the mountain and back and then to the mill at Covington. Like my mother Lizzie worked like a man in the outdoors and did the housework and cooking at home. Like my parents, Lizzie and Hillman worked themselves to a short life. In later years, Lizzie and Hillman moved down into the main valley and built a small modest home

Lizzie and Hillman at their 50th wedding anniversary

.....Eventually Lizzie got a job at the Greenbrier Hotel, and, when Woody become eighteen, he was also hired by the hotel and is still employed there. There were times that Lizzie still worked in the woods.
.....I came to know Lizzie because I was her pastor. For many years Lizzie was a faithful member of Peniel Pentecostal Holiness Church where she taught Sunday School. Many a child attended her classes, and her life influenced most of them. Coming to services using her walker, although the pain she was suffering was often great, Lizzie attended church until she passed away. The church would often have a "covered dish" dinner. Lizzie would fix enough food for an entire family. You could always count on Sister Lizzie.
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.....Lizzie is not in this photo for some reason, but her son Woody Cox is. He is to the feller to your left. All of the children in the photo are now adults. This the first Sunday after we had the well put in at the church which made it possible to do away with the little "outhouse" on the side of the hill.

.....Sister Lizzie had the spiritual gift of hospitality. When you were in her home, you would feel at home. When the preacher came to call, which was often, she didn't pull out her best china and silverware and put on a fancy table cloth. She didn't fix a "special meal." The "preacher" was able to eat what the Cox family ate: good plain country fair. Some of my finest meals were enjoyed at Sister Lizzie's table. On Sunday, it wasn't often that the Coxes dined by themselves. Often there would be more than a dozen to feed. At Lizzie's, you could kick off your shoes and put your feet up. At Lizzie's, you were at home away from home. Homes such as these seem to be scarse, becuase they are made possible by pure love and unselfisness.
.....Then, on a very hot muggy day in July, I received a call that Lizzie wasn't well. Lizzie was being taken to the hospital by the rescue squad. I dressed and drove to the hospital where I waited for Lizzie to arrive. After she got there and was admitted into the ER, I waited with Woody in the waiting room. But, soon it was time to pick up my wife from work, and I went into the cubby hole and told Sister Lizzie tht I would be back shortly. She said, "Thanks Brother Okey for coming."
.....After I picked up my wife, I decided that I would go ahead and feed. While I was feeding, We received a call and Carolyn called out to the barn that they thought Lizzie was dying. Before I could get out of the barn, the hospital called back and said that Lizzie was gone. I was very very angry! I felt sick! I admit that I "hauled off" and kicked the barn. Later, I found out that they had not kept an eye on Lizzie at the ER and that she probably would not have died if they had been more attentive. The doctor didn't think that there was much wrong with her...until her heart began to quit. To add insult to injury, although Lizzie had not been admitted to a room, Woody was charged for a televison set. Would you believe that he paid for it?
.....Thus, we began a very tough several days. I went back to the hospital and drove Woody home stopping at his cousin's for a few moments. The next morning I went with Woody to the funeral home to make arrangements. I had done the same with Lizzie and Woody a few years earlier after Hillman had died from expousure up on Kate's Mountain. Until Lizzie's funeral, Hillman's was the toughest funeral that I had had. He was my friend, and my children called him "grandpa." Now I was about to have the funeral of a lady that was like my mother. The funeral was very large and, although it was sad because we had lost Lizzie, it was the funeral of a victorious Christian. At the Dowdy Cemetery after the committal service, Woody and I walked arm in arm out of the cemetery bawling like babies. We went back to his home where Lizzie was not. There we were joined by others who had "come back to the house" as is still customary back here in the hills. Of course there was plenty of food and talk that first day, but I knew that Woody would be coming home from work now to an empty house. I know that was very hard. Woody is still by himself, but he seems do do well and is still as faithful as Lizzie was.

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.....This is Woodson Patrick Cox. Woody has been a long-time deacon of the Peniel International Pentecostal Holiness Church.

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.....These are the Cox and Sparks graves at Dowdy Cemetery. If I had my choice I would rather be buried here than at the Adwell Cemetery where we have plots. In the background, our friend Mary Adwell is decorating her husband Elmer's grave. Elmer was a good friend of mine. I conducted his funeral which, although sad because a loved one had departed, was a victorious Christians funeral.