Carolyn Cox, Oral History

Recorded: May 4, 2000
Interviewed by Sandra Perlman Halem
Transcribed by Maggie Castellani

[Sandra Perlman Halem]: This is Sandra Perlman Halem, it is May 4th, the year 2000. We are continuing with our oral history. Would you just tell us your name and where you were?

[Carolyn Cox]: I'm Carolyn Cox, Mrs. David Cox. I currently, and for the last 30 years, have lived in Akron, Ohio. And it was important to me to eventually do this, though I have talked to people on the phone, and especially to Jerry Lewis, numerous times about doing it. Just haven't gotten around to it or the moment wasn't right.

I think that I should set the scene by simply saying that we've always considered our son, Andrew Roy Cox, the fifth victim of Kent State and what happened here. He died on May 4th, 1972 in King's Canyon, or just outside King's Canyon National Park, in California, on a hiking accident. He was heading into Tehipite Valley in King's Canyon National Park to climb some remote and unclimbed domes or peaks and he had a hiking accident and died on May 4th. Probably coincidental, but still rather eerie that he would die on that day, since he had left college on May 4th, 1970, as a result of the Kent State shootings.

We lived in Buffalo, New York at the time and my husband at that point was the Executive Director of the Buffalo and Erie County Council of Churches. But we were headed for Akron, he was, just in fact because of May 4th, 1970 and the events of that day, he was hired at Akron University. I could go on and on on these details but leading up to our move to Akron was the fact that after the Kent State shootings the, as I understand it, Board of Regents decided that Akron University should have a Philosopher of Urbanology in its Urban Studies Department. And my husband was hired for that position on the 21st of May. It didn't take them long to galvanize. And on the 21st of May he was hired by Akron University to be in both the Philosophy and Urban Studies Departments at the University. So we moved here in May, I'm sorry, we moved here in August, and he began his career at Akron University in September of that year. But on May 4th, 1970 we were in Buffalo, New York and we had two sons in college at the time and three younger ones still at home. One of them was our oldest son who was at Southern Methodist University as a sophomore and then Andy who was a freshman on a full ride -- New York merit scholarship at Colgate University.

And after the shootings on that day he called and said, "I'm leaving for Washington." Colgate had shut down and several buses went to Washington including our son Andy. He was tear gassed in Washington and of course the mobs that descended on the Capitol were mostly angry, mostly students.

But at that point he decided not to go back to college and instead headed for the mountains, which had always been his first love. And he had climbed extensively in the Tetons and at that point he headed for Yosemite, where he lived the last two years of his life. He was an extremely skilled climber and was on, not, he was not a park ranger, but he was on the big wall, over the wall rescue team of climbers that rescued people who got in trouble in Yosemite. And he lived in a camp for a very famous place to campers in Yosemite Valley. He was there on May 4th, 1972 as a direct result of not being in college where perhaps he should have been. And on early May of 1972 he headed into Tehipite Valley with friends and had a hiking accident and was killed in a spectacular fall -- 200 feet down a mountain slope over a waterfall, where his body with his 60 lb. pack lodged behind a waterfall and he wasn't found for 4 or 5 days. But not only because of the significance of the date, but because of the reason he was there and not in college, we have always considered him Kent State's fifth victim.

We have come, I, my husband and I both, for many years came over every May 4th for the memorials and celebrations. And since my husband's death in 1991, I have come over most of the time. We contributed to the initial memorial built in the parking lot. And of course didn't put Andy's name on it. That would have been inappropriate, but in our hearts it's a memorial to him also.

Over the years, and from '72 on, well it would have been '73 the first time we came over, I guess. I should back up and say that when Andy was home in those two years, Kent State was the place he headed. And I think he probably headed for Water Street and the bars more than he did for any other point on campus but he always felt a close kinship and a magnetism here because of the influence the Kent State shootings had in his life.

So, from '73 on, my husband and I came over and immediately and wonderfully got well acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Krause, Allison's parents. And until his death, a number of years ago now, we always called each other on May 4. He, of course, led a lot of the legal efforts to write the records at Kent State, mostly unsuccessfully to his extreme frustration and anger. There were times when he would tell us, "I am never crossing the Ohio border again." But then he would be drawn back as I'm sure the other parents are. I've not gotten to know the other parents. I've seen them and heard them, in some cases, speak. Would like to get to know them, but I think that our relationship is such that I probably won't ever do that. No one in our family is a Kent State alum. Two of our sons of course have attended Akron University, or graduated. Andy of course never went back to college. And so, a personal connection to May 4 which is tangential to most people but extremely important to me is the reason I wanted to come over today.

I love the beautiful memorial to the whole event with the daffodils and the stones and the reflection possibilities there. I think it's appropriate and very fitting. And in a very sort of detached way, in a way, I guess maybe I feel part of May 4th, 1970.

I wish you'd ask me some questions if you have any because I really don't know what more to say. It's an emotional attachment. It's relational, but not direct. I was not on campus. I think I understand. I've read every book that was ever written. Jerry Lewis, by the way, has been a good friend and he and my husband often, frequently through the years, exchanged classes when it was appropriate to the subject matter. So I'm very fond of Jerry and anxious now to read his new book.

I react emotionally badly when I hear a lot of the unfortunately my generation criticisms of what happened at Kent State. It makes me angry and sad that people don't understand what the students were doing. On the radio just this morning, I heard a woman going on about how those weren't even students, they were outside agitators. And things like that do upset me and still have an emotional impact on me because you know some day I hope the whole world understands what happened at Kent State.

[Sandra Perlman Halem]: Would you tell us a little about your other son's involvement in both Vietnam and protest?

[Carolyn Cox]: Yes, I'd be glad to. As I mentioned our oldest son David was at SMU, the end of his sophomore year on May 4th, 1970. And after the shootings and knowing that his brother had gone to Washington, he put a black armband on and was walking around the streets of Dallas a day or two later when a woman tried to run him down with her car. And failing on the first attempt, she turned around and backed up and came back and tried again. That was the climate shortly after that in Dallas, Texas. Our son then came home at the end of his semester. SMA didn't shut down. And he was draft bait and was inducted into the Army on May 21, 1970, not sure when he went to the board whether he'd step forward for the induction or step back as a CO. But at that point in Buffalo, and my husband was quite involved in helping real conscientious objectors across the peace bridge to Canada, the police were not arresting kids at all. They had backed off completely. And when David, our son, found out that he probably would not be able to make any kind of a statement or protest and not really wanting to go to Canada, he stepped forward and was inducted. He was in training as an infantry squad leader for about a year. And then he spent just over six months in Vietnam at a time when his unit replaced a unit wiped out at the DMZ. But he was sent to Cameran Bay, patrolled the beaches, fired at baboons a couple times, but never had to fire his gun in battle of any kind. And though he was fired on one night on night patrol by American troops erroneously. And we later found out that the officer who ordered that strike on, censors were going off and so the firing was ordered. And the man who ordered that, young boy who ordered that firing turned out ultimately to be a graduate student at Akron U. and was sitting at my son's 30th birthday party when my son told this story and he said, "You're not going to believe this." It was Christmas Eve and he remembered well he'd ordered firing on American troops. And it was the patrol led by my son. We thought that was an unbelievable happening.

But at any rate our oldest son came home unscathed from the war and was home by May 1972 when his brother died. So just another little part of the story I guess and the significance of May 4th, 1970 in our family.

Oh, I know, one other thing I wanted to mention. Not only did I come over, and did we come over frequently for the memorials on May 4. But when they were trying to build the gym, we came over to Tent City, and I brought my youngest son, who at the time was probably in sixth grade. And I brought him over with me for several days. We paid bail for two or three of the arrested students. Observed all of the untangling of bodies as the police hauled the protesters away. And I think I've forgotten the names of the students that I paid bailed for but I remembered them for years and have always wondered what happened to them. One of them was the chairman of the May 4th activities that day. But I thought the building of the gym was a sacrilege. Just a personal opinion. So we got ourselves a little bit involved in that protest too. Thank you.

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