About genealogist, historian and author,
James Royal Fox, Jr.
James Royal Fox, Jr. was born 1965 , in south Tillamook County, Oregon. He was afflicted with Osteo Genesis Imperfecta, more commonly known as brittle bone disease. After a series of operations intended to straighten his legs that he might someday walk, it became clear that he never would, instead he continued to break bones. At eighteen years old Jimmy chose to have his legs amputated in 1983, to free himself of much of what made him disabled. Taken off one at a time a couple weeks apart, Jimmy soon learned to swim with the help of a mentor who happened to be a Vietnam veteran and double amputee; he began to ride three wheel atv’s and that fall, he began classes in journalism at a community college.
Given to physical pursuits Jimmy had been a weightlifter in his teens, before his legs were removed. With his brittle appendages gone, he soon took to wheelchair basketball, playing in the forward position with the Portland Wheelblazers for a number of years. After that experience, a dream began that would take some years before Jimmy could make it happen. He wanted to roll a racing chair across the United States.
Meanwhile in 1985 Jimmy left college, returning to his hometown, Beaver, Oregon and began working at his parents business, Fox Grocery. The long-range goal was for him to take over the neighborhood market. Finally in 1987, Jimmy and his college buddy set out to complete his greatest dream and achievement of his life. On May 10 the duo set out from Shriner’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon with New York City as their goal and to raise money for research of genetic disabilities. Jimmy pushed a first-generation 4-wheel racing chair over 2000 miles when a wreck in Valparaiso, IN, broke the stump of his right femur. Returning home to heal, he returned to the spot continuing to New York.
Returning to his hometown, Jimmy began to purchase the family business in 1989. In 1992 he became a firearm dealer and changed the name of the market, to Fox Grocery & Firearms. Starting small but working 6 or 7 days a week up to 13 hours a day, with only his father to spell him off, he slowly grew the business. As the years went by, family owned and operated grocery stores faded away in Tillamook County, but Fox Grocery & Firearms continued to grow. At a point they became the oldest family owned and operated grocery store in the county.
James Sr. passed away in 2011. The loss of his beloved father was a blow to Jimmy, forever altering his life. He continued to operate the store with hired help, but it was never the same. Finally in 2017 the modest store that had been in his family for 43 years was sold and Jimmy retired to the family farm to pursue new dreams. A prior hobby, genealogy, soon became much more. No one has ever chronicled this lone Oregon branch of the Virginia Fox family or their part in history. The endeavor to do so has deep personal meaning for Jimmy. At a point he picked up his pen and began to write.
Also authored
A genealogical biography of both paternal and maternal third great grandfather’s of the author, who he discovered traveled to Oregon in 1852, likely in the same general wagon train. Printed in Oregon Genealogical Society Journal, Lane County, Vol 58, Number 2, Fall 2020.
