Individual Details

St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg, Florida, Wednesday, August 12, 1987: St. Petersburg---Nortney P. Cox, 79, former two-term City Council member and an enterprising home and apartment builder, died Monday (Aug. 10, 1987) at Humana Sun Bay Hospital. To Walter Fuller, the late historian, Mr. Cox was a gadfly of the local building boom of the 1950s. If one builder would put up a model house, Mr. Cox ''would promptly pop up one alongside or nearby, a shade more attractive, a shade cheaper. ''He built a good house, loved a fight better than a feast - or money, for that matter,'' Fuller wrote in St. Petersburg and its People. When home and apartment construction died down, Mr. Cox turned to politics, winning election to the City Council in 1961 and 1963. As a council member, according to Fuller, he ''created more turmoil than a panther in a flock of roosting wild turkeys. He loved it.'' To former Mayor Herman W. Goldner, who served with him, Mr. Cox ''was indeed a unique individual. He was a man of strong and firm opinions who often represented a minority view but with a basic integrity and honest desire to further good government,'' Goldner said Tuesday. The former mayor added: ''As a person, he was a delight - and always fun.'' Defeated in a bid for re-election in 1965, Mr. Cox turned his attention once again to construction work. But not before assessing his time in public service as ''the worst thing that ever happened to me ... and I asked for it.'' He told a newspaper reporter: ''Before I got into politics, I had an airplane, a yacht, a Cadillac and a thriving business,'' he said. ''Now, I've got a 3-year-old Chevy.'' But the next year, 1966, found him running unsuccessfully for the Florida House on a platform that advocated a state lottery. He then seriously re-entered the construction business, erecting a 62-unit development on Fifth Avenue N at 40th Street and a 38-unit apartment complex on 21st Avenue N. Mr. Cox, who lived at 5180 Coquina Key Drive SE, moved here in 1946. He came with his family in a mobile home on a vacation after World War II service in the Navy. He liked the area, added a cabana to the mobile home and sold it at a profit. He promptly went into the home-building business. In his hometown of Decatur, Ala., Mr. Cox was a band leader for 14 years. Survivors include his wife, Judith; two sons, James N. and Thomas J., both of St. Petersburg; a sister, Elizabeth Plemons, Decatur; a brother, William, of St. Petersburg; 23 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Friday at Central Christian Church, 4824 Second Ave. S, with the Rev. Curt Hess officiating. National Cremation Society, St. Petersburg, is in charge of arrangements.The family suggested memorial contributions to the Gulf Coast Lung Association.

Name: Nortney P Cox
Service Info.: RM2 US NAVY WORLD WAR II
Birth Date: 13 Oct 1908
Death Date: 11 Aug 1987
Service Start Date: 24 Mar 1944
Interment Date: 12 Mar 1991
Cemetery: Bay Pines National Cemetery
Cemetery Address: P.O. Box 477 Bay Pines, FL 33744
Buried At: Section 56 Row 11 Site 5

Birth	13 Oct 1908	Alabama
Divorce	19 Feb 1975	Pinellas Co., Florida - Emalene Kirkpatrick
Death	11 Aug 1987	St Petersburg, Pinellas Co., Florida
Burial		Bay Pines National Cemetery, Bay Pines, Pinellas Co., Florida

Spouse	Emalene Kirkpatrick (1913 - 1996)
Child	James Nortney Cox ( - )
Child	Thomas Jefferson Cox ( - )

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