Maud Kathleen Cox Rogers, who helped to found the St. John the Baptist Parish Library System, died May 10, 2010. She was 91, a resident of Junction City, La., and died at Scott & White Hospital, Temple, Texas, after a brief illness. A lifelong learner, she loved her family, her church and genealogy research and strived to offer kind words of encouragement.

Born near Minden on July 17, 1918, she was the sixth of eight children of Will and Marcella Cox. Graduating salutatorian from Minden High School, she attended Northeast College in Monroe before earning a Bachelor of Arts in journalism at LSU Baton Rouge. She left her job as editor of the Minden-Herald and Webster Review to join the U.S. Marine Corps as a First Lt. Communications Officer during WWII.

She returned as society editor for the Kilgore News Herald until her marriage on Sept. 7, 1949, to James L. “Cotton” Rogers, whom she met at the wedding of his widowed father and her Aunt Clara. After earning a Master of Arts degree in Political Science at the University of Houston and a Master of Science in Library Science from LSU, she helped found the St. John Parish Library System and retired as library director.

She was preceded in death by her grandson, James Lester Rogers, and siblings, Oneita Clark, Wilma Perryman, Cecile Weir, Miriam Stutchman, John Cox and Frances Cox.

She is survived by her husband and their four children, Nancy Kay Holmes (Walter), Waco, Texas; Betty Ann Rogers, Washington, D.C.; Wayne Alford (Sherry), Ponchatoula; and David William (Katy), Seabrook, Texas. She is also survived by her grandchildren, Charlotte Bethany Ortegon (Mario), Sarah Elizabeth Gallimore (Jason), Lucy Kay Rogers (fiancé Christian Boutte), Ryan William Rogers and Madeline Marie Rogers; her great-grandchildren, Jeran Spencer Gallimore II, Jacob Crawford Gallimore and Sophia Kathleen Ortegon; and her sole surviving sister, Marcella Shaw.

Funeral services are today at 11 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Junction City. Interment will follow at 2 p.m. at Antioch Cemetery near Minden.

Pallbearers are Larry Rogers, John T. Cox Jr., Carl Shaw, Mario Ortegon, Max Cummings and El Charlton.

Donations to First United Methodist Church, 800 N. Jefferson St., Junction City, Ark., or International Book Project, 1440 Delaware Ave., Lexington, KY 40505, are preferred.

An online registry is available at www.baileymortuary.net