Mount Vernon — Queenie Cox, a native of Gum Springs, has served for many years — and continues to serve — as an advocate on behalf of the Gum Springs community and for the betterment of the entire Mount Vernon area in a leadership role on various committees of the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens Associations.

She currently serves in the dual roles as president of the New Gum Springs Civic Association, and chair, Consumer Affairs Committee of the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens Associations.

A lifetime of public service — including 36 years of military and federal civil service — and community activism has not diminished the energy and dedication of this advocate for her Gum Springs neighborhood or the Mount Vernon community. Mount Vernon Supervisor Gerald Hyland described her influence on life in the Mount Vernon area: “Queenie has been a positive and forceful influence on the issues which her Gum Springs residents care about, such as road expansion that might adversely impact her neighborhood. She also has worked long and hard for years on the variety of issues that have come before the Consumer Affairs Committee of the Mount Vernon Council, and that impact the entire community.” In recognition of her years of service to the Mount Vernon community in 1999 Hyland named her to the honorary title of Lady Fairfax.

Gloria Wiseman, a Gum Springs resident for many years, said, “She is a very dependable, intelligent community leader who never asks anyone to do something that she doesn’t also expect of herself. And whenever anything comes up that affects the community she makes sure to invite the people in charge such as the police, transportation people, or others so we can express ourselves. She has done a terrific job as president of the New Gum Springs Civic Association; I don’t know what we would do without her.”

Cox explained: “I volunteer for the New Gum Springs Civic Association and the Mount Vernon Council because I want to give back to the community. Those who came before me made it possible for me to have a good life. I have very much enjoyed living in the Mount Vernon area and this is my way of acknowledging and thanking those who came before me. I want to continue the Mount Vernon tradition of volunteering and encourage others to do the same.”