Norma Jean Cox of Guthrie, OK passed away on November 25, 2022 at the age of 94. Norma was born on April 23, 1928 and was the only child of Roy and Rosa Sebring. The family lived on a farm northwest of Crescent on land claimed by Norma’s grandfather during the Run of 1889. In her early childhood, Norma rode a horse to a one-room schoolhouse. Being a short girl (and ultimately a short woman), she had to climb on the fence to get in the saddle to ride home. On the farm, her father taught her to drive the tractor and her grandfather taught her to dance. While she did not later spend much time on a tractor, she maintained a life-long love of dancing. Throughout her life she could be found at VFW Halls around the state dancing to Western music.
Norma’s family later moved into Crescent where Norma played on the softball team. Not tall enough to play first base, she was the team’s clutch short stop. In high school, she was also a “Pepper.” It was in Crescent where Norma met Kenneth Wayne Cox. Norma and Wayne were married soon after he returned from his service in the US Army in Europe during World War II. Norma and Wayne soon had two children, Shelia and Larry. After a brief period living on the West Coast, the family came back home to Crescent. Always entrepreneurs, Norma and Wayne owned the grocery store in Crescent for a time before becoming the owners and operators of the Hub Café on N. Grand (SH 74) in Crescent. For many years, Norma and her husband (and often her mother) worked long hours feeding the people of Crescent, along with various roughnecks, farm hands, and visiting football teams.
While Norma lived a long and healthy life, it is was also a life that was undeniably shaped by tragedy and hardship. Norma’s firstborn child, Shelia, was killed in an automobile accident just after her 16th birthday. Several years later, her husband, Wayne, suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed for the rest of his life and made Norma his primary caregiver. Just a few years after that, their other child, Larry, was killed in a motorcycle accident. While these heartbreaking events weighed heavily on Norma, she carried on and made the most of her life. She and Wayne moved to Guthrie and kept attending dances, going to the horse races in New Mexico, and traveling with friends in a specially-outfitted van.
After Wayne passed away, Norma went back to work “in the public.” She took a job waitressing at the restaurant at the Cedar Valley Golf Club. Her ability to work hard and make connections with people were always a point of pride with Norma, and she enjoyed being back in a restaurant. After spending some time in Shawnee, Norma returned to Guthrie to a house on E. Oklahoma. She could often be seen sitting on the front porch drinking coffee, smoking a cigarette, and chatting with all passersby. She lived there alone for many years with the help of her friends, neighbors, and caregivers and visits from her grandson, Chad. She loved going to play the slots with friends and would never pass up the chance to eat a good hamburger. Recently, she had moved just down the road to Ash Street Place.
Norma passed away peacefully and comfortably at the Mercy Logan County Hospital with her grandson by her side. She is survived by her grandson, Chad Wayne Cox, his wife Abigail, and her greatgrandchildren Nathaniel Joseph Cox and Annabel Cox, all of Brookline, MA. She will take her final rest at the Crescent Cemetery next to her beloved husband and children.