Louise Cox McCoy

Louise Cox McCoy, 96, departed this life on June 18, 2020, of natural causes. She was born in 1923 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Katherine Thomas and Russell Cox. She lived in Texas and Arkansas until the age of 13 when her parents moved to Tampa. She graduated from Hillsborough High School with honors and attended Florida Southern College, the University of Florida, and the New York School of Interior Design. She was a legal secretary and bookkeeper, a military wife and mother, interior decorator, and environmentalist. She had a life-long interest in genealogy and was the family historian. Her favorite hobby was playing the mountain dulcimer, and she was a member of the Mount Dora Dulcimer Society and the Lake Eustis Area Dulcimer Players.

She served as a member of the Clean Lakes Coalition, the Lake Jessamine Water Advisory Board, and was an elder in John Calvin Presbyterian Church where she co-chaired the building committee in planning, financing, and construction of the sanctuary.

Louise was preceded in death by her husband of 63 years, Lt. Col. Edward L. McCoy, USAF, who was a B-24 pilot during World War II in India. As a military wife, Louise made homes in 15 duty stations including France before settling in Orlando in 1961 where Ed became an Orange County school administrator.

Also preceding her in death is her daughter Nancy Antley, sister Margaret Cammack, and brothers John and Leon Cox of Lutz, Florida. She is survived by daughters Susan Olin of Orlando and Carol Lowe of Hernando, grandchildren John and David (wife Beth) Olin, Nathan and Danny Lowe, and Lindsey Lowe Bates as well as numerous great grandchildren and nieces and nephews.

Louise’s ashes will join her husband’s, scattered on family property on Cold Mountain, North Carolina, where the family has spent vacations over the past 43 years. Her marker will be placed at Chilcutt Methodist Church cemetery in Cleveland, Tennessee, next to her husband’s.