Cox's Chapel Church of Christ- Memories and Art

My dad just sold his house and moved and I found this painting as we cleaned out his attic.  It is a painting or Cox's Chapel Church of Christ in Coxville, Tennessee.  The painting hung in my grandmother's apartment at the retirement home in Bells, Tennessee. 

This oil painting was painted by, Olaf Berry, a man we went to church with when I was a kid.  The Berrys were missioners somewhere when they were young.  They moved to Memphis from Independence, MO to be close to their daughter Faye Adkins.  We loved to go to the Berry's house for supper and to play cards.  Mrs. Berry always had chocolate pies for dessert and there was always enough for us to have two pieces of pie.  Dad and I cut the grass at the apartments where they lived and one spring Dad accidentally cut down Brother Berry's tomato plants with the weedeater.  They always laughed about that.

Cox's Chapel was the church that my grandparents attended. It was a small country church with a cemetery in the back.  The preacher was James Bradley and he preached on odd Sundays and on the even Sundays he preached for the Gadsden Church of Christ. On even Sundays at Cox's Chapel, they had Sunday school class and then singing and a communion service and no Sunday night Bible study.  The church had two aisles and three section of seats.  The pulpit was on a one-step tall platform and had a blackboard on the wall for the preacher to put up notes or announcements.  Behind the auditorium, there were two small classrooms. There were several ceiling fans that were used to keep the air from the open windows stirring.  In the winter there were gas heaters. The bathroom was an outhouse out at the edge of the gravel parking lot and not a place you wanted to go unless you were desperate.  

This is my first attempt to copy Brother Berry's painting.

I have so many memories of this church as a child.  My favorite has to be all the times I would walk there with my grandad.  It was exactly a mile to the church from my grandparent's house. After my grandad had a heart attack the doctor told him he needed to start walking and the church became the destination for those walks.  I got to go with Grandaddy because I was the only one who could halfway keep up with him.  My Grandad, Carl Cox, walked like a man on a mission and it was all I could do to keep up with him. 

When we went to church we had assigned seats.  We sat on the fourth pew from the back on the right side.  My grandmother sat by the window and my grandad set on the other end by the aisle.  I would always try to sit by my grandad.  The pews were brown painted wood with a padded bench and not very comfortable.  Uncle Mose sat in the pew in front of us and Uncle Reggie and Aunt Blanche sat behind us.  Uncle Frank and Aunt Evelyn sat behind Uncle Reggie.  Uncle Frank and Aunt Evelyn were my grandparents best friends and their last name was Drinkard.  They had a son named Frankie and two daughters, Mary Jo and Pam.  Mary Jo was my Mom's best friend growing up.

2nd attempt

Other people I remember from Church were King and Dorthy Porter, and the kids Sunday School teacher was Mrs. Matalou McCord.  I need to talk to my brothers and see if we can remember more names. 

This was the church where my parents got married.  I have some photos of that too but that is the topic for a different post.