Aldona L. Cox

Born: 6/18/1926 Died: 2/27/2013 Aldona (Lili) Cox, age 86, of Newark, DE, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, February 27, 2013, at Foulk Manor South in Wilmington. Born in Lithuania in 1926, Lili’s life was upended by the outbreak of World War II. She lived under both Nazi and Soviet Occupation in Lithuania before escaping the advancing Soviet Army with her mother and sister in late 1944 for Germany. Unable to get to Germany due to chaos in central Europe in the final months of the war, they were imprisoned in a labor camp in Nazi-occupied western Yugoslavia. Her father, a career Lithuanian army officer, and her brother became separated from the family during the War. She never saw or heard from them again. With the collapse of Nazi military authority, she and her mother and sister made their way to the American-occupied zone in Augsburg, Germany, where they found refuge in a Displaced Person’s camp and she completed the nursing school education she had begun in Lithuania. It was in Augsburg that she met her husband, the late James H. Cox, Sr., who, after leaving the American Army, worked for the United Nations as the business manager of the hospital where she completed her education. They were married in Augsburg in 1947. After returning to U.S. in 1947, they settled in Newark, where they spent the rest of their lives. Lili raised three children and numerous cats and enjoyed years of golfing at the Newark Country Club. She dabbled in painting landscapes and was most passionate about her gardening, her beautiful and well-tended beds being a source of pride. She was a member of St. John’s–Holy Angels parish. Having been forced to flee her home and relatives in 1944, she made a both joyful and tearful return trip to Lithuania in September 1989, just two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Taking advantage of her son’s military assignments, she also made return visits to Augsburg and the labor camp where she was detained for months in Yugoslavia, as well as a trip to Moscow shortly after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. She was grateful to have lived long enough to see Lithuania’s sovereignty restored in 1991. She is survived by her sister, Jeanne (Sulcaite) Mazeika and her husband, Stanley, of Delran, NJ; her son, Colonel James H. Cox, Jr. (US Army, Ret.) and his wife, Gretchen (Gruber), of Landenberg, PA; her daughter, Linda L. (Cox) Giannino and her husband, Steven, of Lovettsville, VA; and her daughter, Dr. Lydia R. Cox and her husband, Gregg Somerville, of Hockessin. She was immensely proud of her six grandchildren, Alexis Cox of Newark, Jessica Cox of Washington D.C., Peter Giannino of Lovettsville, VA, and Erik, Alexandra, and Leah Somerville of Hockessin. A memorial service will be held at 7 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013, at the Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Home, 121 West Park Place, Newark, where visitation will begin at 6 pm. Interment will be held privately at the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Bear. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Faithful Friends, 12 Germay Drive, Wilmington, DE 19804.