Elizabeth Holmes “Lib” Dixon

July 20, 1931 - July 15, 2024

May the souls of the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen.

Elizabeth Holmes Dixon died the morning of July 15, 2024, in her home, attended by family, after a difficult and continued decline. The end to her infirmities and release into a far, far better place were infinitely more important than the six days until her 93rd birthday.

Born in Augusta, GA, she was the only child of Robert Harley Holmes and Ruth Story Holmes. Bobby and Ruth had several brothers and sisters each and soon enough Elizabeth had numerous cousins. In later years, this extended family shaped much of the life of her own family.

Her family travelled often, necessitated by her father’s work as an engineer. These stays included years in Columbia, SC, where she attended the Shandon/Schneider School on Devine St. and ended in California. At the beginning of WWII, her father enlisted in the US Navy and became part of the Construction Battalion or Sea Bees. The family was stationed in California for a while and when the war ended, they returned to Augusta, GA.  

For an atypical child, Elizabeth did all the typical things the other children would do. Costume parties, ballroom dancing, art lessons, and multiple types of needlework filled the time life gave her for having fun. She was close with her grandmother, Maude Duncan Holmes, and would tell stories of their times together. Many of Maude’s recipes became her recipes, used soon enough.

Elizabeth started at the University of Georgia when she was 16. She did well in all her studies, became a member of the Pythagorean Math Club as a freshman and earned her math key quickly. Wanting to be like the girls in the movies, her first Georgia football game was an opportunity for her to wear her new outfit: pleated wool skirt, poplin blouse with peter pan collar, and cashmere jacket, topped with her “rat” cap. Seated in the stands on a typical September afternoon in Georgia, her outfit began to wilt as she felt herself “melting” in the heat that afternoon; so much for Hollywood.

It was at Georgia that Elizabeth met and fell in love with Gordon Dixon. Theirs was a quick but permanent romance and they eloped to get married in the summer of 1950. The Korean War pulled Gordon out of school and back into the service. He was stationed at Fort Jackson here in Columbia, where he served as a Signal Corps instructor. Their first child, Robert Holmes, was born that next summer in Columbia. The death of Elizabeth’s father the previous December had brought Ruth to Columbia to live with the new family.

Gordon was mustered out of the Army at Fort Jackson. Faced with a wife, child, and in-law to support, ideas of college were replaced by the offer from Southern Bell to help build out the phone system in South Carolina. A wise choice as their second child, Ruth Ann, was not far behind.

Elizabeth began to make homes in 4 houses before the family made their last move to Deerfield Dr. With so much extended family from Myrtle Beach to Atlanta, Greenville to Augusta, and Barnwell to Savannah, weekend travel became a normal part of the family’s life. “Extended family’ doesn’t begin to express the many bonds that were formed betwixt and between.

In 1957, the Baptist Story side of the family and the Catholic Dixon side came together and joined St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church. Mike Tighe found Bob wandering the halls of Sunday School that first Sunday and welcomed Bob into his second-grade class.

Elizabeth and Ruth became members of the Altar Guild. Bob joined the choir, acolytes, and Boy Scouts. Gordon began to take a leadership role in the Acolytes. Elizabeth worked in the St. Martin’s Drop-In Nursery as well as teaching Sunday school, along with Eleanor Hodges. Later, she was a member of the Vestry.

As before, the atypical woman did many typical things. She was the PTA President at Bradley School when Bob was in the third grade and a Cub Scout den mother. She and her mother, Ruth, made clothes for Ruth Ann and for themselves. Recruited by a friend, she became active in costuming for the local theaters - Columbia Town Theatre and the then Columbia Lyric Theatre, now Lyric Opera. This enjoyable volunteer work broadened Bob and Ruth Ann’s exposure to the Arts, and resulted in life-long friendships for all three. She still created art, painting and doing needlework, such as embroidering the art of Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses on Bobb and Ruth Ann’s bellbottoms.

After Bobb left for Georgia Tech, Elizabeth began to do substitute teaching, mostly at Keenan Junior High. She soon decided to go back to college at USC and graduated magna cum laude with a BS in computer science. Most of her professional career was spent at the Department of Highways and Public Transportation, later the South Carolina Department of Transportation, as database analyst and then database manager.

Elizabeth and Gordon enjoyed traveling together. With tours or on their own, they traveled to Italy, England, Hawaii, New York City, and San Francisco. They even went to Cleveland, Ohio to take their grandson Drew to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Of course, both Dixon families had to go to Disney World together at least once. While London and New York City were their most often visited cities, it was Rome Elizabeth returned to for her last European trip. On their first trip to Italy, the Sistine Chapel ceiling had just begun to be cleaned and Elizabeth and Gordon could see only small patches which had been cleaned completely. When Elizabeth returned with Bobb and Ruth-Ann, the ceiling had been completely cleaned, except for patches left uncleaned for comparison – what a dazzling difference for her to enjoy.

All grandparents, uncles and aunts, both parents, and her husband died before Elizabeth. She is survived by her son, Bobb Dixon, her daughter, Ruth-Ann Dixon, grandchildren Emily Hollis (Travis) of Columbia, and Drew Dixon of Nashville, TN, and other extended family members.  In addition, she lived to see her great-grandchildren, Lizzie and Monroe Hollis, grow into delightful creatures whose antics and warmth delighted her until the end. Story, Warnock, Rice, Bottomley, Holmes, Parker, and Dixon cousins continue the family legacies.

A Memorial Service will be held at St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church on Thursday, July 25, 2024, at 11:00 AM. A reception will follow in the Parish Hall. Our mother loved flowers, but she asked that any memorials be made to St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church or to the Electric Minds Foundation, dedicated to galvanizing support and channeling resources towards pediatric neurology research.