Home of Reid Hearn Cox and Hazel Hall Cox. The Coxes were residents of Ray City in the 1940s
Cox Residence, built 1939
Home of Reid Hearn Cox and Hazel Hall Cox, Jones Street, Ray City, GA. The Coxes had this home built prior to 1940. Hazel’s father, Lawrence Cauley Hall, resided with the Coxes in the 1940s.
Hazel Jeanette Hall (1918-1974) was a daughter of Lawrence Cauley Hall and Eula Belle Swindle, of Ray City, GA. She was a granddaughter of Mary Etta and Redding D. Swindle, and Cassie Lee and John Lewis Hall. Hazel’s sister, Eunice Hall, was the wife of Polk Cheshire Brockman, of Atlanta, who was a pioneer in the recording of country music.
Reid Hearn Cox (1912-1966) was a salesman of music supplies. He originated from Eatonton, GA, a son of Charles Patterson Cox and Mattie Reid Hearn, and studied at Mercer University in 1932.
Hazel Jeanette Hall and Reid Hearn Cox were married in 1937 in Atlanta, GA.
Eatonton Messenger
Thursday, February 18, 1937
Miss Hazel Hall Weds Mr. Reid Cox
The Druid Hills Presbyterian church formed the setting yesterday for the marriage of Miss Hazel Jeannette Hall and Reid Hearn Cox which was a beautiful event taking place at 5 o’clock. Rev. William M. Elliot, Jr., the pastor, performed the ceremony in the presence of a large gathering of relatives and friends of the young people.
The interior of the church was beautifully decorated for the nuptials. Palms and ferns banked the altar, and tall standards of callas with seven-branched candelabra hold-holding white tapers completed the decorations. Preciding and during the ceremony Mrs. Haskell Boyter, pianist, presented a program of music and Le Roy Bledsoe sang.
Acting as bridesmaids were Miss Jane Cox, sister of the bridegroom, and Miss Dorothy Brockman, wearing dresses of gold blister satin with short coasts fashioned with repeplums and gold satin sandals. Their flowers were arm bouquets of Pernet roses, snapdragons and delphiniums in pastel shades tied with ice-green ribbon.
Mrs. Polk Cheshire Brockman was her sister’s matron of honor. She ware the gold satin dress in which she was married. It was worn with a coat, trimmed with sable fur. Her hat was an off-the-face model of brown maline, and she carried an arm bouquet of talisman roses.
Miss Ann Brockman, niece of the bride, was the ring -bearer. Her dress was a floor-length empire model of ice-green satin and she wore a yellow ribbon in her hair. She carried the ring in a calla, showered with valley lilies.
Jasper Sojourner. Dr. S. L. Morris, Jr., Dr. E. C. Moore and C. Roy Arnold were ushers.
Entering with her brother, Polk C. Brockman, by whom she was given in marriage, the bride was met at the altar by the groom and T. Pitts Davidson, who acted as best man. Her blond beauty was further enhanced by her wedding gown of white satin, fashioned along princess lines with a high cowl neck and leg-o-mutton sleeves which ended in a point over the hands and trimmed with self-covered buttons. The same buttons trimmed the waist at the back and the full skirt flared into a short train. Her long veil of illusion fell from a coronet cap, beaded in seed pearls and crystals and she carried a sheaf of calla lilies.
After the ceremony Mr. and Mrs. Brockman entertained at a reception at their home on Springdale road for the bridal party and out-of-town guests. Mrs. Swindle Hall, mother of the bride, and Mrs. C.P. Cox, the bridegroom’s mother, received with Mr. and Mrs. Brockman and Mr. and Mrs. Cox.
In the dining room the table was covered with a point Venice lace cloth, and the center decoration was a bride’s cake placed on a mound of pastel flowers. Yellow candles in pastry candlesticks embossed with orange blossoms, callas and lilies of the valley, were used. Miss Jane Cox kept the bride’s book and Misses Dorothy Brockman, Essie Bell Brockman and Mesdames J. B. Sojourner, H. E. Montgomery and H. A. Brockman assisted in entertaining. Roses, snapdragons and delphiniums were arranged throughout the house.
The bride and groom left for a wedding trip. The former wore a two-piece traveling suit of apricot wool with brown accessories. Her flowers were a shoulder corsage of orchids.
Mrs. Cox is the daughter of Mrs. Swindle Hall, of Ray City, Ga. For the past several years she has made her home with her brother and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Polk Cheshire Brockman, on Springdale road. Mrs. R. D. Swindle, of Ray City, grandmother of the bride, was a guest at the wedding. W. H. Hearn, of Eatonton, grandfather of the bridegroom, was also present. – Atlanta Constitution, February 6th.
The newlywed Coxes first boarded with Arlie Guthrie and Marvin Purvis in their home on Main Street, Ray City, GA. Marvin Purvis was a merchant of Ray City, and the Purvis’ grocery store was on the south side of Main Street near Lyman F. Gidens’ Barber Shop and just east of the tracks of the Georgia & Florida Rail Road. The Purvises were among Ray City’s better-off families; the Purvis household had been one of the first in town to acquire a radio.
In 1939, the Coxes built a house of their own on the northeast corner of North Street and Jones Street, Ray City, GA.
Hazel Hall Cox and Reid Hearn Cox became Ray City homeowners in 1939.
Eatonton Messenger
October 19, 1939
Mr. and Mrs. Reid Cox are now building a new home at their home in Ray City. Reid, you know, is the son of Mrs. Charles P. Cox and the grandson of W. H. Hearn.
Liberty Magazine, June 8, 1940.
Liberty was a weekly magazine, said to be “the second greatest magazine in America,” ranking behind only The Saturday Evening Post in circulation. It featured contributions from some of the biggest politicians, celebrities, authors, and artists of the 20th Century. It ceased publication in 1950.
After the Coxes moved into their new home, the Purvises moved just a block down the street to a home on the corner of North Street and Bryan Street.
Hazel Hall Cox was a woman of fashion, “a real glamour girl, always made up – high heels, fancy hairdo.” Hazel Cox took all the women’s magazines, Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, Colliers, Liberty, Life, etc., and after reading she shared them with Arlie Guthrie Purvis.
The Coxes later moved to the Atlanta area where Reid developed and manufactured high capacity dryers used in laundromats all over the country.
Reid Hearn Cox died April 22, 1966, and Hazel Hall Cox passed on November 18, 1974. They are buried at Decatur Cemetery, Dekalb County, GA
Graves of Hazel Hall Cox and Reid Hearn Cox, Decatur Cemetery, Decatur, GA.
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