Margaret Maggie Ann (Block) Cox

Margaret Ann Cox “Maggie” passed away peacefully at 10:12am EDT on  Sunday, August 28, 2022, at Promedica Ebeid Hospice Residence while surrounded by family. She was born on May 5, 1936, in Logan County, to the late Charles and Zelma (Dodds) Block.  She is survived by her sons Steve (Debbie) Vance of Richland, MI; Chandler (Connie) Cox of Klondike, TX; and Kris (Kim) Cox of Surprise, AZ; her daughter Kyla Spencer of Benton, KY; her brother Charles Block of Bonita Springs, FL; and her sisters Mary (Tom) Richardson of Toledo, OH, and Martha (Stan) Muszynski of Sylvania, OH.  She is also survived by four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, as well as 12 nephews and nieces. She was predeceased in death by her husband Roger Kyle Cox, her son-in-law Eddie Spencer, and her grandson Ben Spencer.                                                                                                        

Maggie was a 1954 graduate of DeGraff High School, and after a career that included Owens-Illinois in Toledo, she settled down to raise a family, and lived in several states before returning to Logan County for over a decade, during which time she ran a contract engineering firm in Bellefontaine followed by a seasonal dairy bar in New Holland, and then retired to Florida with her husband Kyle.  She enjoyed tole painting, gardening, looking after the family dogs and cats, volunteering at the local hospital, and travel with friends and family.  While living in Florida, she volunteered at Hope Hospice in Fort Myers for many years.  She eventually returned to the Toledo-Sylvania area to be near her sisters (or maybe to avoid the frequent hurricanes in southwest Florida).                                                                                                  

Those who remain remember that she had a keen eye for art, could keep a plant alive without even trying, could pick an author who was going to make the NYT best-seller list, and accepted others without judgment. Maggie liked collecting stone jewelry, original paintings, glass artwork, and marble eggs. She enjoyed crosswords, puns, and other wordplay, and she had a wicked sense of humor.  She crocheted and embroidered and made clothes and even soft-sided luggage for her family. She taught her kids to make Grandma Dodds’s famous mashed-potato donuts.  She made sure that the kids got up and fed the livestock before school and made sure they did their farm chores and homework afterwards.  She would get out in the fields and help bale the hay or round up the cattle that got through the fence.  She grew fruits and vegetables in the garden to help feed the family, and canned and froze what it produced. She even harvested elderberries from the roadside to make elderberry jelly for the school lunches she made each morning, because the strawberry and raspberry patches didn't yield enough fruit to make 15 sandwiches a week for a whole school year.   She loved being able to get down on the floor and play with her grandchildren, and sorely missed being able to do that when arthritis took that away from her.  When it came time to move back to Sylvania, she looked forward to being able to spend time with her sisters again, and really enjoyed "Sister Day" each Thursday.  She really loved all the pets we had, and the joke was that the family photo albums had more pictures of pets and plants than it did of kids.   

A gathering will be held at Reeb Funeral Home, 5712 Main Street, Sylvania, OH on Friday, September 16, from 4:00 to 7:00pm.  Graveside services will be held at Dayton Memorial Park, 8147 N Dixie Highway, Dayton, OH on Saturday, September 17, at 1:00pm.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Disabled American Veterans at https://tinyurl.com/DAV-Donation or Promedica Ebeid Hospice Residence on Flower Hospital Campus at https://tinyurl.com/ProMedica-Hospice. Online condolences to reebfuneralhome.com

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