Sheila Anne Cox

Sheila was born on Nantucket Island, MA on November 3, 1937, the only child of the late Charles and Adelaide Talford Jr. As a young girl she moved with her parents to Longmeadow, MA, where she attended and graduated (Class of 1955) from the Springfield High School of Commerce, in preparation for an administrative/clerical career in business. Not long after high school, Sheila met and married the now deceased Ronald Aune, of Minneapolis, MN, with whom she had her only child, Scott. As may happen, marriage with her husband Ronald was short lived and ended in divorce.

Beginning a new stage in life, Sheila moved to, and resided in New York City, where she worked for a time in a clerical capacity at Newsday, in Manhattan, and later as an administrative assistant with the Office of Aviation Safety, Naval Air Station (NAS), Floyd Bennett Field, in Brooklyn. While working at the Air Station Sheila met her soon-to-be second husband, Archie H. Cox, Sr., a naval petty officer who also worked at Floyd Bennett Field. In the years following their marriage, accompanying her husband to numerous naval assignments/duty stations, Sheila completed a successful government service career working in a variety of civilian administrative positions. In addition to her work at Floyd Bennett Field, she also traveled with her husband to NAS Barbers Point, HI—Sheila worked on the opposite side of Pearl Harbor at Hickam AFB; NAS, Point Magu, CA, and the Naval Education and Training Command (NETC), Newport, RI, where Sheila worked at the Naval War College and later at the Naval Station Legal Services Office. Sheila remained in RI but retired from government service at the end of her husband’s tour of duty there.

Sheila had a love for animals—a natural artistic talent too-- and always had at least one pet kitty, more often two. After retiring from her position at Newport she began professionally breeding and competitively showing both Bengal and Siamese kittens. In 1998, Sheila and her husband, long retired, moved to Accokeek, MD to be closer to their son and daughter-in-law. Sheila however, continued to breed and show kittens. Over the years her entrants, both a product of love and a source of pride, earned numerous ribbons at competitions judged by The International Cat Association (TICA) and the Cat Fanciers Association (CFA)—assuring that her home was always filled with kittens, and kitten lovers, trapesing in and out of the front door. In her advanced years, when no longer capable of caring for a “kennel” of kittens, she created colored pencil drawings and watercolor illustrations of her kitties as well as the many birds, squirls, racoons and groundhogs that frequented the Mayone Reserve. Her illustrations appeared from time to time in the Mayone Community where she lived.

She leaves behind her son and daughter-in-law, Scott and Kyong Aune, of Arlington, Virginia