Will Allie Dix Sr. ‘Uncle Billy’ with dog at 12 Marshall St.
Photo submitted by Lyn Smith Simonton
 

Bill Dix”, Studio portrait of Will Allie 'Billy' Dix Sr.

Photo submitted by Lyn Smith Simonton

Billy Dix Sr.
Photo submitted by Lyn Smith Simonton
 

Studio portrait of Billy Dix Sr.’s daughter, Ruth Dix at age ~7 years.
Photo submitted by Lyn Smith Simonton
 

Photo submitted by Lyn Smith Simonton

“Billy Jr.” Dix, studio portrait by “Stanley Paulger, 23”, Montgomery photographer.

“The Bill Dix family”  Ruth, Billy Sr., Mable, Billy Jr. at Ralph & Ruth Whigham’s home in Rutherford AL.
 

Billy Dix Sr.’s daughter, Ruth Dix in Girl Scout uniform “February 1, 1943, West Palm Beach Florida”

”Little Ruth” School Days, 1955-56, Crawfordville

Billy Dix Jr. age ~ 16
Photo submitted by Lyn Smith Simonton

“Joyce & I with the sail boat in the back yard Girl Scout camp, Jupiter Fla., Feb. 23-25, 1957”
Photo submitted by Lyn Smith Simonton
 

Dear Cousin Bill,

Thanks for your reply to our quest for help with our Dix family history.  I don’t know if you remember me.  I guess the only time we ever met was back around 1956 when our family (Dix, Mavis, me and my sister Ginny) visited Uncle Billy and Aunt Mable on our summer vacation.  I remember that you had a really dark tan and that you took us (maybe just my dad and I) on a short trip somewhere in “woody” station wagon -- just like the one Roy Rogers and Dale Evans had.  I have a picture of me trying to climb a palm tree in your parent’s front yard.  I was about eleven years old then.  Was there a garage apartment behind their house?

I’m afraid that my first letter (sent to several cousins), was a bit too general.  What we need to know are things you remember about your father:

Was your dad’s name  “William Allie”, or “Will Allie”?  We just knew him as “Uncle Billy”.   Are you William Allie Dix Jr.? 

Do you know if “Allie” was also the name of  Albert Sidney Dix’s brother -- perhaps one who died as a child? (The names “Allie” and “Dollie” are engraved on the border of the Dix plot in the Oakwood Cemetery here in Montgomery along with ASD’s father,  Alexander Franklin Dix, and brother, Alexander Franklin Jr., and their wives.)

Do you know where your father was born?  Our records show that he was born on 05/29/1901 and we’re pretty sure he was born some where in the vicinity of  Macon GA.  ASD served as pastor in several communities around then including Butler, Reynolds, Perry, and Forsyth. 

I remember my father telling me, that during the depression, your father (after being denied employment at the Greyhound Bus station in Dublin GA) picked up a broom and started cleaning the waiting area and the emptied buses.  After seeing his initiative and hard work, he was eventually hired and later worked his way up to manager of the terminal there.  Can you verify this?  Where you born then?

Where did your father live?  I think I remember my dad (Dix Whigham) and my grandfather (Ralph Whigham Sr.) telling me that Uncle Billy lived in Cusseta AL (Chambers County) when my dad was a boy.  Where were you born? Ruth? We’d like a list of all of the places (and dates) that your father lived.

I have several photos of Granny Dix, her children and grandchildren, that I seem to recall Dad said were made at Uncle Billy's Cusseta home.  Would you recognize it?

Frances Chapman sent me a photograph of your family, but without names.  If you know the picture I’m referring to (3 young ladies sitting at the coffee table and the others on the sofas), could you identify them?

This should be enough for now, but I’m sure there will be other questions.  Thanks for your time and help.

Love,

Russell (Rusty) Whigham
518 Seminole Dr.
Montgomery AL 36117-4043
334-271-3684
[email protected] 

Rusty,

Sorry it took so long to get a few pictures together.  I have some of Mom and Pop.  They are stuck in albums.  I can’t get them out without tearing them.  Will try later.

Yes, Pop is Will Allie Dix, I am Will Allie Dix Jr.  I am also Billy Jr., Little Bill, I also answer to “Hey You”.  Pop was born in GA.  I don’t know what town or county.  To get his Social Security Number, Aunt Ruth and Aunt Nelle had to write and swear that he was born;  when and where.  We drove by the place once.  All that was left was a big oak tree and a hog [?????]

I don’t know when Pop dropped out of school to work,.  He did spend the summers with the Hall’s  which ones, I don’t know.

As he got older he was a soda jerk in one of the drug stores on the main street [Dexter Avenue ?] of Montgomery.  He had to give this up. The water made a fungus on his fingers.

Pop worked for the railroad in West Point GA.  He would go to Montgomery by train at times.  Pop was a ticket agent and telegrapher.  I don’t know if he stayed in Montgomery or with Aunt Issale, but while he was hunting for squirrels in the woods, he met Mom (Mable).  He gave her the squirrel and they seemed to gel.  What year they were married, I don’t know.  They lived in West Point GA.

I was born in Lagrange GA.  When the farm was bought in Cusseta, I don’t know.  When the recession hit, Pop lost his job with the RR and the farm.  We went to Montgomery or Chisholm to stay with Mom’s folks (Yarbrough).

As the times got better, Pop got a job in Macon as a ticket agent for Greyhound.  From Macon to Jacksonville FL, and back to Macon.  I do know we got to West Palm Beach in 1936.  While I was in the Air Force, he worked and lived in Orlando FL.

While I was in college, they moved and worked in Albany GA.  Pop got a station of his own in Dublin GA.  Pop worked and saved his money, and when they had enough, they came back to West Palm Beach and bought a house with three apartments in back.  Pop worked in FT. Lauderdale off and on until he retired.  Mom died first.  I did what I could for Pop.  I had to call Sis (Ruth) and she could take care of him for half what it cost here.  Pop died in Crawfordville with Sis. 

For me, I was born in LaGrange [GA].  I have been everywhere Mom and Pop went.  Graduated in 1942.   Entered the service in the Air Force (13th Air force, 42nd bomb group, 70th Bomb Squadron), as a flight engineer (they had to call us something) on a B-25.  Sixty-two missions and I was sent home.  I tried college for two years.  I found out I would have to make my living with my hands and back.   I was a roofer for the last 19 years.  I was with the School Board in West Palm Beach.  Retired in1988.

Joyce was born in West Palm Beach, July 17, 1924.  She went to college at FSU.  She has a Masters in biology. She taught for 32 years.

Sis (Ruth) was born in Cusseta in October, 1926.  As I said, we went everywhere Mom and Pop went.  Sis graduated in West Palm Beach (1944 or 1946?) Went to FSU and became a school teacher.  Taught school here  in West Palm Beach for a few years and went to Crawfordville and taught until she retired.  Well, so much for us. 

Rusty, in reading all the material Frances sent me, someone said granddad picked a pimple with a pocket knife and got infected.  Pop told me he stepped on a nail at the construction site and got the infection.  The doctor did not tell Granny Dix [or] anyone about this.  All I can say from reading, Frances mentioned the Dix men did not work much  just stay home and make kids.

I have never written so much in my life.  No book report was ever this long.  Good luck in all this,

Billy

And, in a separate note: 
10-27-2001

Rusty I’m putting all this in the post office tomorrow (Sunday).  If you rode in my Ford “woodie” station wagon, Joyce & I lived here at 1021 Avon Rd.  No, I don’t remember.  I have said that a lots.

As many times as we came to Montgomery, Pop never said a thing about Oakwood Cemetery.  I do know about the Yarbrough plot in Prattville. 

Love to you , your Sis and kids,

Joyce & Billy