Tornado mayhem blamed in death

By Sheila Stogsdill

Published: May 18, 2008

PICHER — As a military wife, Chizuri Cox lived in many places, but she called the former lead and zinc mining town of Picher her home.

Cox, 80, was among seven people who died as a result of the May 10 tornado that devastated Picher.

Federal and state damage assessment teams said 167 homes were damaged, including 114 that were destroyed and 30 that had major damage.

Born in Japan, Cox lived in Picher the last 15 years of her life, said her daughter, Naomi Smith of Stigler.

Cox married her husband, Jake, in 1955. He died in 1992.

"Mom was not in good health,” Smith said. "She was pretty much bedfast.”

After the tornado passed through Picher, Cox's children and other family members arrived at the woman's home to check on the mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Smith said her mother was on oxygen and began having breathing difficulties when the electricity went off during the tornado.

"She was still alive when my two brothers and their wives and my cousins got to her,” Smith said.

A frightened Cox told her family about the tornado sirens.

The combination of going without oxygen plus the stress of the tornado was too much for her mother, Smith said.

After the tornado passed, Cox's health seemed to be okay, but an emergency rescuer couldn't find Cox's pulse.

"They put her in the back of a truck and attempted to do CPR on the way to the hospital,” Smith said.

Chaos seemed all around them — in Picher, at the hospital, everywhere, she said.

"It was all just too much for her,” Smith said.

Cox was buried Thursday in Kansas, Okla.

She is survived by three sons, Jonathan Cox of Fort Collins, Col.; Claude Cox of Picher; David Cox of Miami and a daughter, Naomi Smith, of Stigler.

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