A Celebration of Life was held on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. at the Western Bank Event Center.
Lacey Ann Cox, 45, passed away on Aug. 12, 2026 in Fargo, N.D., surrounded by the family and close friends who loved her so deeply.
Lacey was born on March 18, 1981, in Sherman, TX, to Cindy Holman and Steven Maxheimer. Her life would take her many places, from Texas to California, Nevada, Montana , and eventually North Dakota, but wherever Lacey called home, she had a way of finding people to love and people who loved her right back.
Lacey spent part of her childhood and early school years in Norwalk, CA. While in high school, she met Bill Cox, whom she later married and together were blessed with four children, Johnathan, Jason, Nevaeh, and Noah.
Of all the titles Lacey carried throughout her life, Mom was the one that mattered most. She loved her children fiercely, completely, and without reservation. They were the center of her world. She worried about them, fought for them, celebrated them, sacrificed for them, and loved them with everything she had. When one of her children hurt, Lacy hurt. When they needed her, she showed up. And when life became unimaginably difficult, she stood beside them and carried as much of the weight as she possibly could.
Lacey gave her time, her energy, her heart, and often pieces of herself to the people around her. She cared deeply, sometimes so deeply that she seemed to feel things other people couldn’t put into words. She was an old soul and a big feeler. She experienced life from somewhere deep within her soul, and she expressed that part of herself through art, writing, and photography.
She was incredibly quick-witted, and her sense of humor was unmistakably hers. She could find something funny in the middle of chaos and deliver a comeback so quickly that everyone around her was laughing before they even had time to process what she’d said. She could make people laugh on days when they didn’t feel much like laughing at all. That laughter and the sound of Lacey behind it is something the people who loved her will miss terribly.
Caring for others also became part of Lacey’s working life. She worked with students at Tate Topa Tribal School, served her community as a 911 dispatcher at the Lake Region Law Enforcement Center, worked for Rolla Ambulance, and most recently worked at LRC.
Whether is was a frightened caller on the other end of a 911 line, a student who needed someone in their corner, a patient in the back of an ambulance, a coworker having a difficult day, or one of the countless friends and family members who turned to her.
Lacey had a heart for people. But those who loved her knew there was far more to Lacey than the jobs she held or the places she lived. She loved hard, gave freely, and cared enormously.
Most of all, she’s a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, and a person whose absence leaves a space that simply be filled.
Even in death, Lacey’s instinct to give did not end. Through the gift of organ donation, Lacey gave others something extraordinary: more life. Her final act on this earth reflected so much of the way she had lived it, giving pieces of herself so that someone else could keep going.
Lacey leaves behind her children, Johnny (Emma) Cox, Jason Cox, Nevaeh (Gannon) Cox, and Noah Cox; her mother Cindy Holman; grandmother Patricia Stoltz; her twin sisters Tara and Sara; niece and nephew Benjamin Micheal and Sophia Rose; uncles Mike and Scott; aunt Robyn and an extraordinary circle of friends, coworkers, students and people whose lives are different because Lacey was once part of them.
Lacey was preceded in death by her grandfather Del and her best friend Dawn’s son Odin.
Lacey was many things in life, caring, messy, loving, scatterbrained, and responsible. But more than any one thing, she was a mom first.
Everything she did was for her kids and for what she believed was best for them. Through the good times and the bad, she was always there as a mother, doing everything she could for her children.
When her daughter Neveah got cancer, Lacey put everything else on the back burner. She poured herself into caring for her, raising money, getting her to treatments, and doing whatever needed to be done to help her through it. When her children needed her most, she was there.
That same desire to care for people carried into the rest of her life. She spent much of her time working in jobs where she could help others. She worked at the school and at LRC, drove for an ambulance, worked as a police dispatcher, and was training to become an EMT. Caring for people wasn’t just something she did for work; it was simply part of who she was.
Lacy had a habit of putting other people before herself-probably more often than she should have. She gave a great deal of herself to the people she loved and the people who needed her.
She wasn’t perfect, and I don’t think she would have wanted us to stand here and pretend that she was. Life wasn’t always easy. But she loved deeply, she cared deeply, and she tried to do right by the people around her.
More than anything, she loved being a mom. That is one of the greatest things she leaves behind; the love she had for her children and the countless ways she showed it throughout her life.
Lacey is survived by her children, Johnny, Jason, Neveah, and Noal, and their father Billy; her mother, Cindy; and her sisters, Tara and Sarah, and the many family members and friends who’s lives she touched.
All in all, Lacey was a great mother and a great person. She spent so much of her life taking care of others, and she will be deeply missed by the people who were lucky enough to have her in their lives.