Gloria Ann Cox, 88, former long-time teacher and coach at Paris ISD’s Travis Middle School, died Wednesday, August 2, 2023, in Paris, Texas, after a brief battle with lung cancer. Memorial services are set for 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 12, at Bright-Holland Funeral Home in Paris.
Gloria is survived by daughter Lauri Ellen Miller and her husband, James, of Waxahachie, Texas; daughter Julie Ann Galiga and her husband, Todd, of Pflugerville, Texas; grandchildren Brian and Daniel McIntosh, Grace Nowlin and her husband, Jake Nowlin, and Bonnie Galiga.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Harold Mark Cox, in 2014; and by her parents, Thomas and Kate Harmer, originally of Plano, Texas.
Gloria was born August 9, 1934, in Plano, Texas, graduating from Plano High School in 1951. She graduated from Wayland Baptist College in Plainview, Texas, in 1955, where she was a member of the famed Hutcherson’s Flying Queens national championship basketball team. From 1953 to 1958, the Queens won a women’s collegiate basketball record 131 consecutive games; this record still stands today.
She began her Texas teaching career in several Panhandle school districts, including Kress, where she met her husband. They married in 1959 and soon returned to Plano, where they both taught and coached at Plano High School through 1967. They moved to rural Lamar County in 1973; Mark taught in North Lamar ISD, and Gloria joined Paris ISD in 1974. Primarily an English language arts teacher, she also coached girls’ athletics most of her career. She helped start the Paris ISD girls’ athletics program in 1974, coaching the first-ever girls’ basketball, volleyball, and track teams at Travis Middle School. Gloria was Travis Teacher of the Year in 1996 and retired in 2003 after 28 years at Travis.
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