Bainbridge City Council honors artist Mary Barber Cox

Editor’s Note: Mary Barber Cox, 84, of Bainbridge, GA, died peacefully on Monday, November 24, 2014, at Memorial Manor in Bainbridge, GA, following an extended illness. We extend our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to her family during this time.

You can read Mrs. Cox’s obituary online at The Bainbridge Post-Searchlight.

PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS Mary Barber Cox has been an important aspect of the success of the annual Holiday Open House; and

WHEREAS Mary Barber Cox has been an important aspect of the success of the annual Holiday Open House; and

WHEREAS Mary Barber Cox, who, after her college education, married and returned to her native Bainbridge and firmly planted her roots in her hometown as wife, mother, and artist; and

WHEREAS Mary Barber Cox gave of herself unselfishly, freely sharing her artistic talents with the residents of Bainbridge for more than half a century; and

WHEREAS for twenty four years, beginning in 1991, Mary Barber Cox has provided her artistic expertise in providing to the City of Bainbridge pen and ink drawings of buildings, churches and landmarks depicting the history of Bainbridge to be used on Christmas ornaments; and

WHEREAS during the annual Holiday Open House Mary Barber Cox would be on hand at Willis Park to autograph the ornaments, braving even the rain, cold, and wind many of those years; and

WHEREAS the Mary Barber Cox Christmas ornaments are a highly sought holiday tradition for many families not just in Bainbridge, but across the state of Georgia and even across the country; and
WHEREAS Mary Barber Cox’s medical condition no longer allows her to meet the public to autograph the ornaments; and

WHEREAS the members of this body would like to join the community at large in recognizing the many hours Mary Barber Cox dedicated to this project for so many years; and

WHEREAS while Mary Barber Cox will not be at the 2014 Holiday Open House in person, she will be honored at that event this year.

NOW THEREFORE I, Edward Reynolds, Mayor of the City of Bainbridge, Georgia, do hereby proclaim that Sunday, November 23, 2014 be designated Mary Barber Cox Day in Bainbridge, Georgia, in grateful recognition of her contributions to the success of the Holiday Open House.

IN WITNESS THEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of Bainbridge, Georgia to be affixed this eighteenth day of November in the year of Our Lord, two thousand fourteen.