Dixie Lynn Thomas Hines slipped away from us on December 30th, 2025, at St. Dominic’s
Hospital in Jackson, in the presence of her family and caretakers. She was seventy-eight, still
full of spark, having spent the day before sipping her beloved Starbucks Frappuccino while
out shopping with Leo, the same Leo who, back when they were kids, used to toss the daily
newspaper onto the porches of their neighborhood from his motor scooter. She went gently,
the way she lived, leaving behind a Mississippi made kinder and brighter by the lives she
touched.
Born February 25, 1947, in Jackson, to Eugene Talbert Thomas and Lola Gladys Cox
Thomas, Dixie grew up first on Alta Vista Boulevard near downtown Jackson, in a house
where her backyard doubled as a makeshift performing arts theater. She and the
neighborhood children put on plays under the pecan trees, Dixie invariably the instigator, the
star, and the one who wrangled the audiences, often just neighborhood pets or those who
hadn’t learned to dodge the offer. She played pranks on her housekeeper Lexi, calling down
to her from the upper branches of her favorite climbing tree, “Lexi, this is your conscience
speaking,” Lexi, no doubt playing along, pretending to be mystified. She studied piano
formally, could sight-read just about anything you put in front of her, but her real gift was
playing by ear, picking out melodies that moved her. Music and performance called to her
early: piano and flute, majorettes and marching bands, the thrill of a crowd.
When her family moved to Douglas Drive in northeast Jackson, Dixie joined the Murrah
Misses drill team, performing at football games and other events. Leo lived around the corner,
and they began dating while at Murrah together. Ole Miss welcomed her next, and she threw
herself into it with the same joy she brought to everything. She pledged Phi Mu, represented
her sisters on Panhellenic Council, declared a major in Elementary Education, led the Student
Education Association, and danced with the University Dancers. She was passionate about
Ole Miss football, but never let it get in the way of good manners. State fans in her presence
always felt welcome, too.
With her B.A. of Elementary Education secured, Dixie and Leo married on October 25, 1969,
beginning a partnership that would last more than fifty-six years. Theirs was a marriage built
on a shared sense of humor, quiet faith, and the comfortable certainty of two people who
simply belonged together.For thirty-five years Dixie taught children, preschool up to fifth grade, across Biloxi public
schools, Woodland Hills Baptist Academy, Lakeside Presbyterian Preschool, and longest in
Rankin County public schools in Brandon. While teaching full-time in Brandon she earned a
master’s in reading from Mississippi College, attained National Board Certification, and was
named Jackson Metro Outstanding Teacher, an honor that sent her to a fancy reception
where she shook the governor’s hand and then waved off the fuss with a modest, “Well, they
were just being nice.” She retired in 2012 but kept on working, consulting in special education
programs. Dixie could hardly make it through the grocery store without someone calling out
“Mrs. Hines!” A former student, a parent, a colleague, all proof that her reach was wide and
her touch lasting.
An active member of Woodland Hills Baptist Church in Fondren for decades, she taught
Sunday school and led the GAs, helping little girls dream of missions and service. Later she
found a home at Grace Bible Church in Ridgeland, where she loved digging deep into
scripture with her small-group Bible study friends.
As a mother and grandmother, Dixie was an exuberant memory maker. She was always ready
to host a party, though she happily left the cooking to others when possible. Her true love was
decorations, the more elaborate the better. Weeks ahead you’d hear about the themed place
settings, the polished silver, the perfect centerpiece, the napkin rings. Holidays were her
canvas, Christmas most of all. As the years passed her trees grew downright baroque, layers
of tinsel, sparkling protrusions, ornaments collected over decades, until the family teased that
the tree had become a glittering portrait of her exuberant psyche. She pushed education at
home with the same tireless energy she brought to school: hours at the kitchen table making
flashcards, drilling vocabulary, cheering every small victory. She kept the World Book
Encyclopedia proudly displayed on a shelf in the living room and had a full library of children’s
books amassed from years of school book fairs. When daughter Catherine joined Phi Mu at
Delta State, Dixie beamed. When son Tom needed an apartment in New York City on short
notice, she cut short her Christmas break, flew into a historic blizzard, and trudged through
three feet of snow to help him find a place. Her grandchildren Luke and Jack grew up
surrounded by stories and books, well-read long before they reached school age, because
Dixie believed a child with a book in hand was a child with the world at their feet.
Dixie is survived by Leo Hines, their children, Catherine Hines Gordon and her husband Brett,
Tom Hines and his wife Michelle, her grandchildren, Luke and Jack Hines, and her sister
Nancy Thomas Aldridge.
