SCVHistory.com | Canyon Country | Photo Gallery: Plaque Placed in Memory of Leona Cox School Namesake, 10-17-1969.

Signal archive photos (2x2-inch negatives, Kodak safety film), photographer unknown.

October 17, 1969 — A plaque is placed at Leona Cox Community School in Canyon Country in memory of its namesake, Leona Cox (1885-1969), who died the previous July 21.

The plaque was mounted to a boulder that was placed near an oak tree that had been planted in her honor in 1965. Plaque reads:

This Oak Tree
Planted in Honor of
Mrs. Leona H. Cox
Presented by the P.T.A.
of Leona H. Cox School
May 26, 1965

Click to enlarge.

Leona Cox Receives Plaque.

The Signal | Friday, October 24, 1969.

The presentation of a permanent plaque for Leona Cox School in Saugus was made last Friday at the school.

The presentation was made by Mrs. Robert Reed, PTA president, to Edward Amstutz, principal.

Invited guests included Mrs. Cox's son, Clement Cox and his wife [Paula]; Dr. Eugene Tucker, newly appointed Superintendent of Sulphur Springs Union School District; and Don Kobabe and Frank Ford, former principals of the school.

The school was dedicated to Mrs. Cox in 1964 for her many years of service to the Sulphur Springs School District without compensation.

About Leona Cox.

Information from the Sulphur Springs Union School District

On Thursday, Aug. 1, 1963, groundbreaking ceremonies were held on a hillside site in Canyon Country to commemorate the building of a new school. This school, to be added to the Sulphur Springs Union District, was to be named in honor of 77-year-old Mrs. Leona H. Cox. Leona had hauled water in five-gallon cans to the pioneer Sulphur Springs School in Sand Canyon, when the water well went dry.

Mrs. Cox turned the first dirt for the project on the sun-baked hills at the corner of Oakmoore Street and Bernina Avenue. She was surrounded by some of the students who had attended the Sulphur Springs school.

Mrs. Cox, widow of Clement Dunbar Cox, was born in Strassberg, Alsace Lorraine, and came to the United States as a child of 3 and first moved to Florida. She came to Santa Clarita Valley in 1923 and settled on a 40-acre ranch in Sand Canyon and raised three sons.

It was in 1931 when Mrs. Cox came to the aid of the pioneer Sulphur Springs School. The water level in the valley dropped and the school's well dried up in the drought. She transported the water cans to the school in an Overland touring car.

At the time, Sulphur Springs School consisted of one room and had one teacher, Florence Mitchell. Mrs. Cox kept the fires going in the winter months, cared for the grounds, helped in disciplining the boys and girls, and later was elected to the school board. She served also as clerk of the school board but later resigned to devote all her time to her family.

The $500,000 school project was built on the north side of Soledad Canyon, west of Solemint Junction overlooking the North Oaks community. The land and site is on a portion of the historic Newhall Land & Farming Co.'s holdings.