Sidney Cox died on September 22, 1975. Early in his life he had a long relationship with The Salvation Army. Late in his life he had a close relationship with the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church (“CMA”).
At the time of his death, he resided in Birmingham, Alabama and often filled the pulpit of the Eastlake Alliance Church (CMA). He also had a very close relationship with the Shades Mountain Baptist Church where his son and daughter-in-law, John and Jean Cox were members.
A memorial service was held in Birmingham on September 24 conducted by representatives of The Salvation Army, Eastlake Alliance Church and Shades Mountain Baptist Church.
On September 25, his former comrades with The Salvation Army conducted a second memorial service in Atlanta, Georgia. This was a remarkable honor. Sidney Cox had left the Salvation Army in Atlanta 31 years earlier in 1944.
Sidney Cox was buried in the Salvation Army plot at Westview Cemetery in Atlanta. The Salvation Army conducted a committal service in connection with his burial. Cadets from the Salvation Army Training College where Sidney Cox had served as Principal from 1936 – 1944 served as an honor guard.
The death of Sidney Cox was a momentous occasion, especially for my family. Not only was he loved by us, but he was revered by many people from around the world. My mother, Jean Wilkins Cox dutifully took her audio cassette recorder to these services, sat it down beside herself and recorded the proceedings. The resulting audio recordings from her seat in the congregation were of poor quality and hardly audible. Nevertheless, they survived the years. In due course they came into my possession. I engaged some audio professionals to enhance these recordings to the extent possible. I then endeavored to transcribe the audio recordings – a nearly impossible task. You will note that the transcriptions contain many blank holes where the audio is inaudible, but the essence of the messages survives. In any event, I have attached the programs from these services, the transcriptions in .pdf file format and the enhanced audio recordings in .mp3 file format.
Should you have an interest in these proceedings, my suggestion is to launch the transcription file. In a second browser, launch the audio files. You will then be able to read along as you listen to the audio recording. Without the transcription, the audios would be hardly intelligible.
However, these are important archives for our family, the Salvation Army and the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church.
John Douglas Cox. Grandson of Sidney Cox. April 2015.
#1 Memorial Service Bham 9-24-75 Transcription (Pdf)
#2 Memorial Service Atlanta 9-25-75 Transcription (Pdf)
#3 Committal Service Westview Cemetery 9-25-75 Transcription (Pdf)
SEC Funeral Services – Part 1
SEC Funeral Services – Part 2
SEC Funeral Services – Part 3
