IN MEMORIAM

EXPANDED EULOGIES

“In Memoriam” listings are expanded paid obituaries, phrased largely as the family requests, and may include enhanced information or photographs that might not fit within free death notices.

Marilyn Cox

Memorial services for Marilyn Kay Eberle Cox, 84, Peabody, who passed away Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, at NMC Health, formerly Newton Medical Center, will be 11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, at Peabody United Methodist Church.

Marilyn was born March 23, 1941, at Salem Hospital in Hillsboro to Lawrence E. Eberle and Mabel Mae Neuhauser Eberle.

She loved living in the country, on a farm that had belonged to her grandfather, Joseph E. Eberle.

After her parents had married, Grandpa and Grandma Eberle moved to Peabody, and her father and mother took over the farm.

While Marilyn loved helping her mom, she especially loved spending time outside, playing and helping her father take care of animals.

She rode her beloved horse, Tom. Tom actually was a work horse, but he seemed to tolerate Marilyn. Tom even lay down so she could get on him. He sometimes would lie down while she was on his back so she could get off.

One of her favorite memories of caring for the cattle was when her dad would let her help wean calves.

Marilyn had her Mother Mabel for only thirteen years; however, her mom made good use of that short time, teaching Marilyn most of what she would need to know. She was able to cook, clean, and most important help care for her little sister, Karen. Even though her mother prepared Marilyn for life after she passed, Marilyn had to mature at a young age to help raise Karen.

Marilyn attended grade school located a mile west of the farm. She often walked to school. She really enjoyed that school and loved her friends who also attended.

It was a one-room school that later was replaced with a larger school that had a cloak room and small library. Marilyn read every book in that library.

She then attended Peabody High School, where she met her forever friend and sweetheart, Jim Cox. Jim and Marilyn married Jan. 3, 1958. They lived in Peabody their entire lives, except for five years when they lived in the Lyona parsonage near Junction City.

Marilyn put as much into her life as she possibly could. Early years of marriage were spent caring for her two sons, Randy and Rick. She loved being a mother to her two boys, who loved playing outside and getting dirty as much as she did.

When her sons started school, Marilyn went to work at Peabody State Bank. She liked working at the bank, and those she worked with became wonderful friends whom she would have for a lifetime.

Jim worked at the local food store. In 1980, Jim and Marilyn bought the store and operated Jim’s Jack and Jill grocery for 23 years. Their son, Randy, and his wife, Laurie, operated the store with them until it was sold in 2003.

Marilyn always enjoyed working in her home church, Peabody United Methodist Church.

Marilyn and Jim sponsored the Community Youth Fellowship while their sons were at home. She especially enjoyed teaching Sunday school classes. She loved her junior high class and then felt called to start a class for young adults. Those young folks became forever friends.

In 1996, Marilyn answered the call to ordained ministry. She went back to school, attending St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, where she would complete course of study work and become a licensed local pastor.

In 1997, while attending school, she was appointed to serve as an associate pastor at Eastmoor United Methodist Church in Marion and the rural Youngtown church. She also would also serve Burdick UMC and churches of Lyona and Woodbine.

Marilyn acknowledged that one must put the Lord first in one’s life so that you could love your family and others as they deserved to be loved.

Marilyn said that the Lord gave her the very best family any woman could have — a husband who loved her, supported her in all that she did, and cared for her as her health issues would take their toll. Her sister, Karen Eberle Buchanan, was her very best friend.

She loved her daughters-in-law, Randy’s wife, Laurie, and Rick’s wife, Chelle, feeling that she finally had daughters. Her world was completed by her grandchildren, Erin, Megan, Drew, Derek, and Devin, and her great-grandchildren, Carter, Beckett, and Harper Lundstrom and Oliver and Penelope Pratt.

She also loved the young people her grandchildren chose as their forever mates: Erin to Eric Lundstrom, Megan to Brandon Pratt, Drew to Sarah White, and Derek to Lyndzie Brace. She so loved each new family member and thought of each as a son or a daughter.

She was blessed with the most wonderful friends: school friends, coffee club friends, church friends, and Bible study friends. God is good, all the time!

She was preceded in death by her grandparents, her parents, and her wonderful aunt, Mabel Neufeld, who was a mother to her, as well as cousins and friends.

Marilyn will be forever remembered and loved by her family, friends, and the countless people she touched through her time in the ministry.

Marilyn is survived by her husband of 68 years, Jim Cox; sons Randy and wife Laurie of Wichita and Rick and wife Chelle of Kansas City, Missouri; grandchildren Erin Lundstrom and husband Eric, Megan Pratt and husband Brandon, Drew Cox and wife Sarah, Derek Cox and wife Lyndzie, and Devin Cox; great-grandchildren Carter, Beckett, and Harper Lundstrom and Oliver and Penny Pratt; and her sister, Karen Buchanan, Wichita.

Memorial donations in Marilyn’s name may be directed to St. Jude’s Children Hospital, www.stjude.org.