Mildred Fox

Mildred “Cully” Fox passed away peacefully at her home, surrounded by family, on October 13, 2019. She was 96 years old. Cully was a devoted mother to her four children: Rosanna “Rusty” Fox, Laurinda “Rindy” (Stephen) Garcia, Teresa “Terry” Malaspina, and Henry “Ted” (Patrick MacRae) Fox. Cully was also a loving grandmother to: Emily (Joshua Seeds) Garcia, Jillian (Jonathan) Miner, Stephanie (Kyle Merrill) Garcia, Lauren (Ludovic) Vincent, and Robert, Martin, and Paul Malaspina, as well as three great-grandchildren and four step-great-grandchildren. She also leaves a niece, Michele (Rich) Higgins. She was predeceased by her husband of 68 years, Dr. Francis Fox DVM, Professor Emeritus – Large Animal Medicine at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, and four siblings.

Born on June 6, 1923, in Skaneateles, New York to Gordon and Rose Merrill Cullen, Cully was gifted in sports and music through high school, then graduated from Auburn Memorial Hospital School of Nursing and moved to Ithaca when she married Francis in 1946. She worked for many years as a Registered Nurse, serving the student body of Cornell University and in the office of Dr. Wendell Bryce. She was an active member of the women’s auxiliary for the American Veterinary Medical Association on the local, state, and national level. Devoted to her faith and community, Cully volunteered in charitable organizations through the church, community, and the veterinary college. She also was a Eucharistic Minister and the first woman to be elected as chairperson of Saint Catherine’s Parish Council.

Cully’s friends and family will always love and remember her for her compassion, her warmth, her humility, and her sense of humor. Her children remember her as the trusted neighborhood nurse to the various residents of Muriel Street – human and furred and scaled and feathered alike. Her grandchildren remember her morning singing and whistling, her bedtime storytelling, and her chocolate chip cookie dough, which was so delicious that sometimes it didn’t make it to the oven. She will be greatly missed.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. Catherine of Siena Church (where Cully and Francis were founding members) on Friday, October 18 at 11 a.m. with a reception following in the Parish Center.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Catherine of Siena Church, 309 Siena Drive, Ithaca, NY 14850 or to the Dr. Francis H. Fox Scholarship fund (College of Veterinary Medicine, Box 39, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-6401) or a charity of the donor’s choice.

The family would like to thank Valentia Yaschenko and Theresa Maine for their loving care as well as well as her daughter Rusty, her primary caregiver over the last three years.

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