NEWS :: Red Cloud Indian School

Parish News: Meet Fletcher Cox
by Shannon Grooms, Our Lady of the Sioux Church
posted on Aug. 14, 2009

The music emanating from the Church doors at Our Lady of the Sioux Parish in Oglala each Sunday is the work of Fletcher Cox, a high school senior active in the Church’s youth ministry program.

“Sr. Mary Jane picks me up at 8 a.m. Sunday mornings, and we go to the Church and practice for an hour,” he says. “We decide what songs we’ll offer up at Mass, and I also take those home to practice.”

Cox, the son of Robert and Betty Cox, is one busy man at the parish, having received the Sacraments of Baptism, Reconciliation, Communion and Confirmation. He has served as an altar server at the Church as well.

Cox attends Oelrichs High School, where he is involved in cross-country, basketball, track and band. He is also involved in the Upward Bound Program through the University of Colorado in Boulder, which gears students toward continuing their education in college. Cox spends a week each summer at American Legion Boys State, a camp that gives students a practical experience in government. And in his free time—what little he has—he enjoys swimming, soccer and staying in shape.

Cox was born in Rosebud, and is the oldest of four children: Zach, Allison and Kassie. When he was young, the family moved to Colorado for a few years before moving back to the Pine Ridge Reservation and settling in Oglala.

Shannon Grooms is a member of Our Lady of the Sioux Church. She taught Religion at Red Cloud Elementary School for four years until the birth of their first daughter. Shannon, her husband, and her two daughters live on a ranch nine miles north of Oglala, SD.

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