Katherine Oakes Cox became the President of the Lincoln Memorial University Alumni Association and its 40,000 graduates on October 11 during LMU Homecoming.
Kathy, as she is best known, grew up in Claiborne County, but chose Union County as her home. She never envisioned herself as the LMU Alumni Association president when she graduated from the Harrogate campus in 1978. But a phone call from her high school buddy and college roommate Nancy Neely Whitaker set her journey in motion. Nancy asked Kathy to accompany her to the LMU Homecoming. Of course, Kathy agreed, even though she had not returned to the campus in more than 20 years. Her friend Nancy had been diagnosed with cancer and it would be a chance to reminisce and share memories with her while enjoying the Railsplitter activities.
After the Homecoming, Nancy began to talk to Kathy about getting more involved in the LMU Alumni Association. To jumpstart the effort, Nancy nominated Kathy for vice president and Kathy was elected in 2023. From vice president, she automatically advanced to president this year.

Kathy has several projects that she wants to accomplish in her term. She wants to expand the statues in the Alumni Park that replaced the old tennis courts on the Harrogate campus. Kathy would like to see other notable alumni recognized along with the current statues of Ellen Myers, her husband, and O.O. Howard. She also wants to establish and help strengthen local alumni chapters of LMU including graduates from campuses in Ewing, Virginia; Knoxville, Harrogate, and Chattanooga, Tennessee; Corbin, Kentucky; and the nation's number one veterinary school in Jacksonville, Florida. As President, Kathy will lead the planning for the main campus graduation in Tex Turner Arena, Homecoming, the alumni board meetings, and several alumni dinners.
She hopes to get more LMU alumni involved in Homecoming and get them to keep in touch through the alumni connections program. She would also like to witness more LMU graduates from Union County nominated and inducted into the athletic, professional or educational LMU Hall of Fame.

“I don't want any graduate to wait 20 years to return to campus. I want them involved in our travel program, recognized for exemplary achievement, promoting our scholarships and attending or even helping plan our homecoming program,” declared Kathy.

Kathy's career has been a journey propelled by phone calls from county leaders to establish new programs that have taught her the skills of listening and observing. Fresh from her LMU college graduation, she landed a job with the Union County Department of Human Services (DHS) and began serving, working in a relatively new position in children's services that would later become a separate department. Her job took her all over Claiborne and Union Counties to meet the needs of all children, but especially those that may have been neglected or abused. During these nine years she met and married her husband Mike and became the mother of Adam.

In 1987, DHS experienced a cutback in funding, so Kathy decided to stay at home with her new daughter Alison.

After a year of not working, she answered a call from Judge Raymond Buckner to be the Youth Service Officer in Union County. This call would be just one of many that helped determine the course of her career. Supervised by Judge Buckner and later Judge Darryl Edmonson, Kathy worked with youth to meet their needs and requirements under the Juvenile Justice System for the next ten years. During this time Kathy also served as Chair of the Parks and Recreation Board to aide in the acquiring of grants to enable the Union County Business & Professional Association to develop Wilson Park.

A call in 1999 from Charles Thomas, Director of Union County Public Schools, would make her the Director of the Governor's Prevention Initiative Program, a seven-year grant, to work with students who were academically and environmentally at risk of dropping out before high school graduation. For the next six years, Kathy worked with youth to provide counseling, acquire academic supports and mostly help them to make good choices. This program morphed into much of the services of the I-CARE Program of today.

Another phone call secured Kathy's final career position in Union County Schools. Sandra Price, Special Education Supervisor, asked Kathy to become the first Behavior Specialist in Union County Public Schools. So Kathy used her experience, coupled with in depth training and professional development, to do behavior plans for special needs and at-risk youth until her retirement in 2020, after 44 years with governmental and educational youth programs.