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GWGF Spotlight on Yolanda
(Playing ~ "Friends Are Friends Forever")

This page is dedicated to another precious good friend and fellow member of the
"Girls With Grandmother Faces," a group of friends from our days at Carson-Newman College.
(See update ... In Memoriam ... at the end.)

~ Yolanda Featherstone Dixon ~

Just about my favorite picture of Yolanda .... giving a typical bear hug to two other GWGF,
Earlene Caylor Bryson and Mary Ann Shropshire Barnhart at a C-N Homecoming.

When Yolanda arrived on campus our freshman year from Belmont, NC,
she literally stole our hearts with her friendliness, her outgoing personality,
her smile and the tremendous love in her heart for everyone. She came from a
Carson-Newman background as her mother also attended C-N.

Yo was an extremely popular and active member of our class and was involved
in many areas of interest. She immediately became one of the brightest "stars" of
the A Cappella Choir. I could never hear the "Messiah" without remembering
her beautiful solo voice. No one could ever do justice to "Rejoice Greatly,
O Daughter of Zion!" like Yo. We had such good times on the choir tours,
along with many of the other GWGF. We also sang together in the Girls' Sextet,
along with Doris Ruth, Shirley, Barbara and Kitty. And, along with many other
"Girls With Grandmother Faces," she was a member of the Class of 1952.

Yo lived in a small make-shift dormitory during her freshman year, like
so many of us, and then moved to Henderson Dorm where she had a room on
the third floor for the next three years. We all have fond memories of
that wonderful dormitory with its big rooms and parlors, the wrap-around porch,
its wide airy halls, the fun we had and of the life-long friends we made.

Among other activities and honors, Yo was a fellow Hypatian and 4th Quarter
president our senior year, and she was active in BSU and the Definite Service Band.
She was voted female "Personality" in our senior student elects, and
she was Class Secretary for our senior year.

Yolanda and cow !
Yo pets a cow statue at the Biltmore Dairy store in 1994 when several of the GWGF
made a long weekend trip to Asheville, NC. ...Sorry you couldn't milk that cow, Yo!

After graduation, Yo became educational director at Roxboro, NC, Baptist Church.
There she met and married Jack Dixon and moved the short distance to Leasburg
where they farmed and helped in the family dairy. They had three children,
Lyn, Warren and Jane. Yo was quoted by one of the GWGF as saying that she could not
have chosen a better life than the one she had on the farm and dairy with her husband Jack and
the children. Her husband died in 1990. Yo is now the proud grandmother to five grandsons and
two granddaughters, and she has been choir director for many years at Leasburg Methodist Church.

I have fond memories of several days spent with Yo at her home in 1993.
I was amazed to note that she got up each morning at 3:30 to go out to help
get the milking machinery in place. No milk was ever as good as that fresh milk!

At "The Attic," once a favorite spot for our group's planned dinners at Homecoming.
Front row ~ Bobbie Jean "Kitty" Catlett Peck, Yolanda, Charlotte Hicks Brunson
Second row ~ Carolyn Springer Harding

Yo shares a good time with us at a C-N Homecoming.
Made at a restaurant close to our "home away from home," Comfort Suites, Morristown.
Front Row ~ Kitty, Ann Weed Cushing, Yolanda
Second row ~ Hilna Watters Long, Barbara Compton Goodgame, Earlene, Carolyn

Yolanda shares a big laugh with some of us at the first
Spring Fling, 1995, at Carolyn's home in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Picture made at our area's famous Cherokee Restaurant on the Cumberland River.
First row ~ Yolanda, Wanda Saylor Palmer, Anna Joyce Burgin Northern
Second row ~ Barbara, Earlene, Carolyn, Mattie Carroll Mullins

This picture is a must for the story that follows from Spring Fling, 1995:
Seated in front ~ Wanda
Standing ~ Kitty, Carolyn, Helen Wilkie Hagan, Earlene, Barbara, Yolanda, Mattie, Anna Joyce

At Spring Fling, 1995, several of us had a "moment to remember" with Yo.
We were looking around downtown Nashville, when someone (?) said, "Let's check
out Tootsie's Orchid Lounge." Curiosity prevailed, certainly including my own,
as Tootsie's was, for a great many years, a famous spot for the country music
greats. We entered, thinking we would walk straight through, look around and
then go out the back door which led straight to the famous Ryman Auditorium.
However, Wanda had other ideas and whispered to someone that we were a famous
singing group! Before we knew what was happening, they had pressured us to
come up to the stage and sing. There was just no graceful way to refuse, so Yo
whispered to us to sing "Amazing Grace." Someone with a guitar accompanied us.
After the first stanza, everyone applauded, thinking, of course, that we would stop.
However, Yo kept leading us right through every single stanza! Even those sitting
around at tables drinking, stopped and listened. Now, how many people, other than
the "greats," can say they have sung on stage at Tootsie's !!!!

Yo has been like a "mother hen" to all of us. At our GWGF Spring Flings, or
anytime we're together, she can be counted on to give everyone a special
"good night" hug and a big smile.

Thank you, Yo, for being such a loving, special friend.
You are always in our hearts, our thoughts and our prayers,
and we all love you !!

"The Lord Bless You and Keep You."

~~~

In Memoriam (August 19, 1930 - August 31, 2002)

We have just lost our precious friend Yolanda in this life but will join her someday in The Next!
She was truly special and will live forever in our memories and our hearts. Her Christian testimony
was strong throughout her life and to the end.

I'd love it if you would sign my guest book ... click on my picture.

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