Freeda Madene Cox

A native Californian, Madene, as she preferred to be called, had lived in Bakersfield since 1944 and became the quiet matriarch of two families, her own and the one she married into.

In 1952 she married Bryan Cox. The couple built a life together, raised four children, and Madene played a quiet, but vital role in their successful horse breeding and training ventures.

Madene was born on January 17, 1935, in Pasadena, to Freed Powell and Mary Blackmon Powell. The Powells, like so many families of the time, had only recently moved from Texas to the promised land of Southern California hoping to escape the twin plagues of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression.

Freed Powell supported his family by working at various industrial jobs in the Los Angeles region, including battery and tire manufacturing plants, both of which exposed him to hazardous substances that took a toll on his long-term health. After the onset of World War II, Powell found his calling as a welder, was hired by Soule Steel in Los Angeles, and contributed to the war effort building landing craft for the U.S. Navy that were used in the amphibious assaults by U.S. and Allied forces in the Pacific and European theaters of war.

In 1944, Powell moved his family, which had grown with the addition of a son, Donald, in 1943, to Bakersfield. They settled into a one-bedroom house on 31st Street in the La Cresta neighborhood. “Madene and I slept in the living room, her on a bed and me in a crib,” said Don Powell. The family later bought a home on Jeffrey Street, where one of the neighbors was Bakersfield lawyer Vincent DiGiorgio. Madene often babysat the DiGiorgio children.

Madene was a strong, often stoic woman, a calming influence who saw that things that needed doing got done. It was a trait she developed early on growing up in an often-turbulent home where the parents’ emotions ran high and money was often short. “She had nobody to lean on at home. She carried the load,” Powell said.

With the age difference between them, Powell said his big sister took him under her wing and steered him through childhood. “She always looked after me. Her friends would come to my birthday parties. When she and her friends would go to the movies she would take me along.” Madene attended Hawthorne, Emerson, and Washington schools in Bakersfield, before moving on to East High School. At East High she was a good student and a majorette.

In mid-1952, Madene began dating Bryan Cox, a dashing young man with a Dagwood haircut and a fancy car who attended Bakersfield High School. They were married in Las Vegas in September 1952 and embarked on a 71-year journey together. She only met his family the night before the wedding but found a second home with the Cox clan that lasted the rest of her life. She was close with her mother-in-law, Jessie Barrett Cox. Madene, upon Jessie’s death in 1988, took on the role of organizing family events and gatherings, and looking after the members of the extended family.

Upon their marriage, Bryan and Madene set up housekeeping in East Bakersfield. She completed her senior year of high school while he worked for Kern Rock Co., a concrete supplier, changing heavy truck tires.

The first of their four children, Bob, was born in August 1953. A second son, Bruce, followed in June 1955, shortly before the couple bought their first small house in East Bakersfield. A daughter, Laurie, was born in July 1956, and a second daughter, Brenda, came along in October 1958.

In 1959, Bryan and Madene bought 2.5 acres with a small house a mile north of Lamont on Mt. View Road. The four children grew up attending Lamont schools, with Madene serving as the family driver and often room mother for their classes. At separate times, she worked in the Lamont School District cafeterias. An avid reader herself, she frequently hauled the kids to the Lamont Public Library, and to after school activities. When Bryan was away, Madene would pile the kids in the family car or pick-up truck to attend movies in Bakersfield, usually Disney flicks.

As the horse business grew, she organized and outfitted Laurie and Brenda, both of whom exhibited at horse shows. She cleaned many horse stalls and administered medicine for ailing horses. She loved animals of all kinds and made sure the kids had dogs and directed their care and, over Bryan’s objections, welcomed cats that wandered in and set up home.

Over the years she was deeply involved in managing the financial side of the horse business, which grew rapidly after the family enterprise had moved from Lamont to a larger White Lane property. She had taken bookkeeping classes in high school and later at Bakersfield College. She worked for a year at Kern General Hospital, and for years managed the office for son Bruce’s business, Diesel and Auto Machine.

After her own children married, Madene immersed herself in grandparenting, frequently supervising and feeding several at a time in her own home.

“When I think of her, I will always remember that anytime we visited or stepped foot in her home, there was a wholesomeness, comfort and kindness that always brought me back to my childhood. Grandpa always had the big personality, but we all know grandma was the glue that kept it all together,” said granddaughter Rachel Bower.

Madene was a devoted and lifelong member of the Church of Christ, immersing herself in churches in California and Arkansas, where her and Bryan lived for a decade in retirement. She was an active supporter of the Associated Women of Pepperdine.

Madene was preceded in death by her husband Bryan, in 2024.

Madene is survived by her children: Bob Cox, and his wife, Sharon, of Arlington, Texas; Bruce Cox, and his wife, Madaline, of Bakersfield; Laurie Fanjul, and her husband, David, of Oakdale; and Brenda Tremaine, and her husband, Bob, of Bakersfield. She is also survived by 11 grandchildren: Sarah Cox, of Dallas; Christina Cox, of Melbourne, Australia; Jessica Reinhart, of Elizabethtown, Pa.; Bonnie Eakle, of Bakersfield; Bryan W. Cox, of Kuna, Idaho; Rachel Bower, of Star, Idaho; Justine Fanjul, of Oakdale; Mitch Fanjul, of Ripon; Cole Fanjul, of Sacramento; Bobby Tremaine, of Umatilla, Fla.; Michelle Etcheverry, of Bakersfield; and was preceded in death by grandson, Nathan Cox.

She also had 10 great grandchildren: Waylon and Wayne Bower; Blaine and Jessie Eakle; Eleanor and Luke Etcheverry; Faith and Mathias Reinhart; Wyatt Fanjul; and Charlie Leonard. She was preceded in death by great-grandchild Jaden Riley Cox.

Madene is also survived by her beloved brother Donald Powell, and his wife, Vivian of Bakersfield, along with their two adult sons, Devin and Dean Powell. She is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews from the Cox family.

A Celebration of Life will be held at 12 noon Thursday, March 5, in the Kern Room at Hodel’s Country Dining, 5917 Knudsen Drive, in Bakersfield. The family requests anyone wishing to honor Madene’s memory consider donating to Hoffman Hospice of Bakersfield.