Tuesday, January 30, 2001
Beth Cox, former husband meet briefly
By Loretta Fulton
Reporter-News Staff Writer
Barre Cox, who resurfaced in December after
a 16-year absence, met briefly with his former wife and 17-year-old
daughter over the weekend in a Nashville church, but no one is
talking about what was said.
"It happened," Beth Cox confirmed in a telephone interview
from her Franklin, Tenn., home outside of Nashville. "But
I'm not ready to make any comments."
Wesley Barrett "Barre" Cox was recognized Dec. 10 while
auditioning for a preaching position at White Rock Community Church
in Dallas. That was the first time the former Abilenian had been
seen since his ransacked car was found abandoned in Jones County
in July 1984.
Seven years later, he was legally declared dead, leaving his wife
a widow and his daughter without a father.
Cox now goes by the name James Simmons and claims to have suffered
amnesia since awakening from a coma in a Memphis hospital two
weeks after being found in a car trunk there. Memphis police and
hospitals have not been able to verify his story.
Since his reappearance, Cox has been in the center of a media
and public spotlight as questions about his story have arisen.
His former wife, who never remarried, has declined to comment
on whether she continues to believe her husband's claims of amnesia,
as she did when he first reappeared.
Her attorney, Ed Bailey of Nashville, said Monday that ministers
at Woodmont Church of Christ stood ready Friday evening and Saturday
morning to assist Beth and Talitha Cox if needed. However, he
said the two met privately and uneventfully with Barre Cox for
a short time Friday night and for several hours Saturday morning.
"No follow-up meeting was planned," Bailey said. "They
do not wish to comment on the specifics of the meeting."
Beth and Talitha Cox are scheduled to fly to New York today for
meetings with the hosts of three magazine-format television shows,
Bailey said. They will meet over a two-day period with ABC's Connie
Chung, CBS' Dan Rather and NBC's Stone Phillips. Bailey said his
client will discuss the possibility of granting interviews to
the networks for their programs.
Meanwhile, Barre Cox has kept a low profile. He preached at White
Rock Community Church Sunday but did not mention the meeting with
his wife and daughter, deacon Fred Ward said.
Cox is preaching on Sundays and spending several days during the
week tending to family business, Ward said. He has a mother and
brother in the East Texas town of Frankston. Cox has not planned
a public statement about the meeting with his wife and daughter,
Ward said.
Simmons was hired by the church where he was spotted in December
and preached his first sermon there Jan. 21. White Rock Community
Church ministers primarily to lesbians and gays.
During a press conference at the church on Jan. 20, Simmons was
asked how he reconciles his former life as a family man with his
new one as an openly gay minister.
"I'm doing that as we speak," he replied.
When he resurfaced in December, Simmons was employed at Golden
Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif. A Clarendon
rancher named James Simmons said Cox used his Social Security
number for several years, a claim to which Cox has admitted.
At the time of his disappearance, Cox was en route to San Antonio
from Lubbock. He had planned to stop in Abilene to visit friends
he and his wife made when both were employed at Abilene Christian
University in 1982-83.
The couple had recently moved to San Antonio, where Cox was employed
as a family minister at a Church of Christ, when he vanished.
Contact staff writer Loretta Fulton at 676-6778
or fultonl@abinews.com.
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Copyright ©2001,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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