Avis was born on May 16, 1921 to Ivy Osten Curry, Sr. and Gertrude (Sausen) Curry in Mission Hill, SD. Avis graduated from Yankton High School in 1940 and later attended Yankton College and the N.B.T. business School in Sioux City. She attended school and worked at International Harvester when she met Lt. Grover Cox, Jr. returning from WWII and got married in 1945 in Seneca, KS. In 1949 she moved to Kinston, NC where she worked for Nationwide Insurance. Avis and Grover welcomed their son, James, in 1946 and returned to Yankton with her family in 1963. Avis helped start Curry Auto Parts in 1963, which is now known as Cox Auto Supply (NAPA). She worked there every day and enjoyed her customer-friends over these many years. Avis will be missed not only be her family but by those patrons who always loved seeing her behind the counter. She enjoyed her family dearly and every minute spent with them from family outings to camping in the motor home to fishing and family dinners. Not only her sharp wit and response will be missed but how caring she was and known as Mom, Aunt Abbo and Gramma Avis.

Survivors include: Her son, James Grover Cox & wife, Betty of Yankton, SD; grandchildren: Chuck Cox and wife, Tara of Olathe, KS ; Dr. Garret Cox of Springfield, IL, one great grandchild, Ethan Cox and several nieces and nephews in North Carolina.

She is preceded in death by her husband, two brothers (Ivy and Franklin Curry), one sister (Marjorie Curry), mother and father, and granddaughter (Brianne Cox).