Huey Cox

Huey Cox - June 27, 1936 ----- May 16, 2018 - An Adventurous Life My dad was known for being a story teller. Many of his stories seemed like they could only be tall tales or figments of his imagination. After all, he grew up in a tiny town in Arkansas and ended up back in that same town. The truth is that his life was a version of those stories and he got more adventure out of life than most of the rest of us ever will. Huey grew up in Pike County and always considered Murfreesboro his home. As a child, he learned to make moonshine whiskey and participated in the family business. Since bootlegging was not a long-term career path, he decided to leave home at 16 years old and head west on a bus. He stopped in Washington State and finished high school there. He picked apples for room and board plus whatever other jobs he could find. This is where the story starts getting murky... He crossed paths with some shady characters and spent time as a boxer, minor league baseball player plus some REAL "tough guy" occupations. In the process, he collected a very interesting set of scars that medical staff thought were impressive given that he was still alive to describe how they happened. He eventually met and married my mother. To support his growing family, he took a job as a logger that sent him to Alaska where he added to his adventures: - Climbing to the top of 100 foot tall trees to hang logging cables - Facing down a momma black bear (it's a bad idea to pick up a bear cub) - Flying to work in float planes (it was the only way to get there) - Getting rescued from a sinking boat during an ocean storm via coast guard helicopter (afterword, he refused to get on a boat in the ocean... ever) When he returned to Seattle: - He became a VERY competitive bowler. He became so good that he bowled against the best in the world at the time and more than held his own. His collection of bowling trophies took up several bookshelves in our home. - He also worked for Boeing Aircraft Company and shared stories with us about all of the unsettling details about how the planes that we fly in are made and tested (or NOT tested). Eventually, he brought us to his childhood home in Arkansas where he joined his family's logging business. His extraordinary skills as a deer hunter kept our freezer full of venison (in-season and out of season). When he told stories about catching monster catfish from under rocks using only his hands, most people didn't really believe him... as a child, I watched him catch catfish that outweighed me. One profitable summer he had the opportunity ditch work. He used that summer to coach our local baseball team to a league championship. He was sometimes gruff, but he knew the value of spending time with his family. He finished his working years in Texas open pit coal mines repairing machines that were large enough scoop up a large house in a single pass. Some of his clever ideas became standard operating procedures for Caterpillar Equipment Co.. After retiring, he bought a convenience store on a lake. This gave him the opportunity to catch some legendary black bass. Some of these bass exceeded 14 pounds and still decorate my basement walls. My brother's family lived in New Zealand. Being retired, my parents joined them for a year (again, family focused). - Dad befriended the local Maori chief (headhunters by heritage). Learning of Dad's distillery skills, the chief attempted unsuccessfully to convince Dad to establish a legal whiskey operation. - Another New Zealand adventure involved retrieving a lava rock from an active volcano while on a helicopter. We eventually lost mom to a long illness and he was by her side every day for the last two years. Since then, he has lived on the family farm, keeping his collection of semi-domesticated deer and turkeys happy and well fed. Through all of his life he never backed away from a challenge (he had the scars to prove it). He will be missed by all of those who loved him. He will be especially missed for the true stories of his life adventures that never needed his embellishment to be entertaining. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Huey Cox please visit our Sympathy Store.