Mr. Ernest O’Brien “Buddy” Cox, age 72, a resident of 725 Willow St., Washington, died Friday, March 9, 2012, at Vidant Inpatient Hospice of Greenville.

A funeral will be held at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses of Washington with Chad Skretvedt officiating. Burial will follow in Oakdale Cemetery. Larry Miner, Tony Congleton, Al Lodge, Darnell Ross, Tom Strickland and Geof McDowell will serve as pallbearers.

Mr. Cox was born in Beaufort County on April 25, 1939, to the late Ernest Randolph Cox and Lilly Kathleen Dixon Cox. On Sept. 4, 1964, he married the former Barbara Jean Anderson, who survives. Mr. Cox worked for National Spinning Company for 22 years and had served as a volunteer at Beaufort County Hospital, where he was recognized once as volunteer of the year. Mr. Cox was one of Jehovah’s witnesses. Mr. Cox loved to cook and all who visited him loved to share in his wonderful cooking.

In addition to his wife, Barbara, of the home, Mr. Cox is survived by his daughter, Vanessa Cox Hayes and husband Mike of Washington; two grandchildren, Anderson O’Brien Cox and fiancé Carmen Perez-Munoz of Chapel Hill, and Savannah Alexandra Lucas of Washington; two brothers, Arthur Oakley Jr. and Lester Oakley, both of Greenville, and three sisters, Agnes Lockamy, Hildred Lockamy and Annie Smith, all of Greenville.

In addition to his parents, Mr. Cox is preceded in death by a brother, Preston Cox and a sister, Beatrice Woolard.

Flowers are welcome or memorials may be made to the Marion L. Shepard Cancer Center, 1209 Brown St., Washington, NC 27889 or to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1732 N. Market St., Washington, NC 27889.

The family will receive friends from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. tonight at Paul Funeral Home & Crematory of Washington and other times at the home.

Online condolences may be offered to the family by visiting www.paulfuneralhome.com.

Paul Funeral Home & Crematory of Washington is honored to serve the Cox family.