Prominent Virginia breeder Nellie Mae Cox passed away Monday. She was 75. Cox bred multiple Grade I winner Showing Up (Strategic Mission), as well as 2003 GII Alcibiades S. winner Be Gentle (Tale of the Cat) and multiple stakes winner Gimmeawink (Elusive Quality). The Virginia native began breeding Thoroughbreds in the late 1980s with a broodmare band of some dozen head and admitted to Virginia Living in 2008, “You can't help but fall in love with them all.”
Cox and her husband Sidney Bobby Cox, Jr. founded the Richmond-based demolition contractor company S.B. Cox, Inc.
Cox was preceded in death by her son, Michael Wray Cox; and sister, Carolyn Stonnell Baber. She is survived by her husband, son Sidney Barbee Cox III and daughter Robin Cox Petrine, as well as seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. at the West Chapel of Bennett Funeral Home in Glen Allen. A funeral service will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at All Saints Episcopal Church in Richmond. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions be made in Cox's honor to Goochland County Fire-Rescue Department or Goochland Free Clinic and Family Services, both in Goochland.
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