CHAPIN - Phriness E. 'P.E.' Cox, of Chapin, died June 13, 2011. Per final wish his body was donated to the USC School of Medicine. Mr. Cox was born in Gresham, SC, April 16, 1928. He was a son of Pressley M. Cox and Mary Ellen Cannon Melton. He was a 1945 graduate of Columbia High School, 1953 graduate of the University of the S.C. Law School and a 1995 graduate of Coastal Carolina. After high school he enlisted with the U.S. Maritime Service, taking his training in St. Petersburg, Florida. He joined the Army in 1946 and served with the Army Security Agency, Pacific, Japan. While he was at USC he served in the 360th MG Reserve Unit formed by Strom Thurmond. After his graduation from USC, he became an FBI agent, serving in Houston, Texas and New York City. He returned to Columbia where he practiced law for 30 years. He was a founding member of the S.C. Retired FBI Agents Society and Richland County Republican Party. In 1990, he moved to Horry County where he resided for 17 years. He was preceded in death by all those persons that died before him. He is survived by his children, Keith (Debora) Cox, Karen Cox (Wendell Rish), Kirk (Juanita) Cox, Kim (Tim) Holdford, brother, Jerry (aka Ralph) Cox, longtime friend, Jeanette Smith, and 10 grandchildren, Keelin, Carter, Callahan, Cory, Gina, Connor, Fincher, Sawyer, Parker and Cutler. He would like to thank Dr. Prosser and all the nurses at Columbia Heart Center and the Palmetto Health Homecare Hospice staff of Newberry. Memorials may be made to the Salvation Army Irmo Corps, PO Box 4006, Irmo, SC 29063. He loved to travel, read, paint and visit with friends. I am Phriness E. Cox and I approve this obituary. Relatives and friends are invited to meet with family and help celebrate Phriness's life with food and drink on Wednesday, June 22 from 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. at Chestnut Hill Plantation Club House, 851 Lost Creek Drive, Columbia.

Published in The State on June 16, 2011.