Tommy Sue Moxley Kocol

Tommy Sue Moxley Kocol passed away in Milwaukee on July 14, 2019. Born in 1929 to Elizabeth and Thomas Moxley, Sue was the eldest of four children raised on an Allegheny County farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. She played high school basketball, attended Appalachian State and earned a Master’s degree at the University of Tennessee with a focus on kitchen design. She met Raymond Kocol at the University of Missouri where she was a graduate instructor. They married in 1954 and moved to Milwaukee where she was a product consultant for Omar Bakery until their first child was born. Together, Sue and Ray raised six children whom they encouraged to think, explore and treat others with kindness. Sue was inventive in every way imaginable. She used saws and sewing machines with equal skill and channeled her self-expression into home remodeling, creating fine art and elevating the beauty of every day objects. Fundamentally practical, she infused her work with creativity and love. She adapted to change and was undaunted by most challenges. As her children grew, she began substitute teaching in the Milwaukee Public Schools where she had the courage and confidence to go to tough schools where kids needed her. As her youngest child entered high school, she launched her own business and had a 20-year career as a space planner, kitchen designer and contractor. Sue and Ray shared their home with refugees who fled Laos for safety and others who needed a place to stay. She took care of people who struggled, was her sister-in-law’s primary caregiver, worked in a WIC clinic and cooked vats of hot meals for St. Bens. She gamely traveled Europe and Asia with her husband who preferred hostels to hotels. Sue had a fine singing voice, played piano by ear, loved classical music and chocolate. She is survived by her children of whom she was most proud: Stan (Judith O’ Holloren), Beth (Terry Booth), Kitty (Barry Stoner), John (Martha Edwards), David (Lisa Greco) and Jane (Mark Okerman) and her grandchildren Dustin, Alex and Christina Kocol and Zoe and Maya Booth. Ray preceded her in death by only days. Their grandson Ben Kocol passed in 2010. Her family will celebrate her life and that of her husband Ray, at a combined memorial service in the Grand Hall of the James Pihos Cultural Center at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church (9400 W. Congress Avenue, Wauwatosa, WI 53225) on Sunday, September 29, 2019 at 1:30 PM. She will be buried with her husband and parents at the family Church Cemetery in Laurel Springs, NC with a service in the summer of 2020. Memorials to organizations helping refugees or immigrants; or to St. Ben’s meal program would have been meaningful to her.

Tommy Sue Moxley Kocol

July 15, 2019