Judith Ann Cox Milligan

 

Judith (Judy, Juju) Ann Cox Milligan, age 78, died April 16, 2026 in Pensacola, FL.

 

Judith was born August 28, 1947 in Pascagoula, Mississippi to Elmer Wolsch Cox and Ethel Fay Evans Cox. She graduated from Our Lady of Victories High School in 1965.  In 1967 she married Donald Patrick Milligan, Sr. She graduated from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in 1990 as a Registered Nurse. She worked in Mississippi and Florida as a nurse, with her longest tenure as a hospice nurse in St. Petersburg, Florida. She was an excellent nurse, making a positive, lasting impact on many patients’ lives.

 

Judith will always be remembered for her intelligence, quick wit, and playful nature. She could find humor in nearly any situation, even when persevering through frustration, sadness, or pain. A dash of sass helped, too. She was fiercely devoted to her family and her patients.

 

She was most at home living near the Gulf, and never strayed from it for long. Wherever she lived, she decorated her life with an eclectic and wild beauty that mirrored her own, and that was inspired — at least in part — by The Secret Garden. That beautiful wildness was a part of her, but so was the discipline and drive she needed in her professional life as a nurse.

 

She was preceded in death by her parents; her sister, Joan Scarbrough; her brother-in-law, B.R. Scarbrough; her ex-husband; and her son, Donald Patrick Milligan, Jr.

 

Judith is survived by her daughter, Shana Hare (Chris); her niece, Kasey Staes (Travis); and her nephews, John Scarbrough (Kevin) and Dean Scarbrough (Libby).

 

A celebration of Judith’s life is to be determined, with the only certainty being that it will be on the Gulf.