Lynne (Vogel) Cox

Carol Lynne Cox, 81, of Bennettsville, S.C., passed away peacefully from health complications related to dementia on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025, surrounded by the love of her children as the sun broke out on a rainy day.

Lynne was born Oct. 30, 1943, in New Jersey. She was the daughter of Charles and Virginia Vogel.  They lived in Michigan for a short time before her father settled the family, which also included Lynne’s younger sister, Joey, in Villanova, Pa. Life for her family revolved around the Philadelphia Country Club, where Lynne and Joey were members of the swim team. She excelled in freestyle and backstroke and said no one could beat her at backstroke.

Lynne graduated from Bucknell University in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in biology. While at Bucknell, she was a member of the synchronized swimming team, and she met an interesting guy named Tom Cox. They went to a Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity party together, and Tom’s fraternity brothers challenged him to kiss the very chaste Lynne Vogel. He did by the end of the night. They married on Jan. 20,1968, while he was a student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

In 1976, Lynne and Tom moved to Bennettsville, S.C., where Tom opened Marlboro Animal Hospital on Beauty Spot Road. Lynne took care of their three children, Colby, Kern and Wylie, teaching them to swim, throw a football, climb a tree and ride a horse. They often read books together at the end of the day sitting in a sunny spot on the front porch with music playing on the record player. Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings were her favorites (but there were many others to come).

While Lynne dearly loved her three children, she said the “greatest thing that ever happened to her” was finding Ferdinand and raising him. Ferdinand was a Black Angus bull that she found as a calf on the side of the road while driving to Camp Pee Dee to swim laps at the pool. She put him in her yellow Volkswagen Squareback and brought him home. She named him Ferdinand, bottle fed him and took him for walks with her German shepherd, Trudeau. Dementia never robbed her of his memory. She loved to tell the story of Ferdinand to anyone she met. And 10 minutes later, she would tell them the story again.

Lynne worked for a short time in the 1980s with the boll weevil eradication program in Marlboro County. She enjoyed walking the cotton fields and setting out the green traps, despite developing terrible rashes on her arms and legs from the cotton plants.

Lynne eventually moved back to Pennsylvania to be closer to her family after she and Tom divorced. She found a job working as a lab technician at Johnson Matthey, a specialty metals company. She was very proud of the work she did in the company’s gold lab matching product colors. She retired in her early 60s and then began working on a local farm named Sugartown Strawberries. She loved the hard, sweaty, dirty work of picking and planting, and she made a lifelong friend with the owner of the farm, Robert “Bob” Lange.

“Mommy,” as she was referred to by her three children, instilled in them a love of being outdoors and exercising. There was no reason to be inside if there was still daylight, according to Lynne.  Later in life, Lynne would say she hated exercise, but up until May 2020, she walked two to three hours a day. She was quick to tell you that she had always been a runner, but her doctor advised her sometime in her 50s to quit running due to an old knee injury.

In 2016, Lynne’s children decided it was their turn to take care of their mother. For a couple of years, she went back and forth between her daughters’ homes in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, each sharing in the adventure of caring for Lynne. She got to enjoy beach trips, going to the Kentucky Derby, the Philadelphia Zoo, golfing, riding horses, acquiring cats (lots of cats), and riding out two hurricanes and no electricity for days. Lynne found humor in every situation.

Eventually, it was easier on Lynne to remain in South Carolina. Ironically, she was now living out her final years at her home on Beauty Spot Road in South Carolina with all three of her children providing care for her in various ways. She also looked forward to calls every Wednesday from her sister, Joey.

Colby, Kern and Wylie found ways to adapt to every new stage in the journey, finding joy and laughter in the simple moments with Mommy, who also continuously made the best of all situations. Dementia may have robbed Lynne of many memories, but never her sense of humor. Regardless of the challenges, Lynne’s children will look back on these years as happy times with their “Sweet Little Mother.”

Lynne was also blessed to have a team of angels who took very good care of her when the dementia began to take its toll. She was loved by many for her wit, her laughter, her strength and her beauty. The family will always be thankful to these ladies who came in and helped Lynne continue to have a great life.

Lynne was preceded in death by her parents, Charlie and Virginia Vogel, and her ex-husband, Tom Cox.

She is survived by her three children, Colby (Kevin) Miller, Kern Cox, and Wylie (Leighton) Bell; her sister, Joey (Denny) Bement; four grandchildren, Ethan Cox, Cade Cox, Kevin Miller Jr. and Carly Miller; nephew Ned (Angie) Bement; and niece Collyn (Jeff) Gilbert.

Lynne never forgot her three children, her two special sons-in-law and of course, Ferdinand.

A Celebration of Life Service will be held Saturday, March 29, at 10 a.m. at Cheraw First Baptist Church in Cheraw, S.C. The family will receive friends at their house on 615 Beauty Spot Road W., Bennettsville, after the service.

Due to Lynne’s love of animals, donations may be made to the Humane Society of Marlboro County in her memory. Donations can be made online at www.humanesocietyofmarlboro.org.

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