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Rogers Co. Obit for: Dixie L. (Willis) Smith 
Submitted to the Rogers County Oklahoma Archives 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/rogers/rogers.htm
Rogers County Archivist: Bill Cook, wcook14024@aol.com
Date: 4/30/2002               by: Bill Cook, wcook14024@aol.com
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Originally published on Friday 12 April 

Dixie L. Smith



Dixie Smith and her husband Troy developed one of the first rural housing 
developments in Rogers County. To her surprise, he named it "Dixie Estates."
Dixie Smith, whose dedication to the evangelism ministry provided the setting 
for her to meet her husband, died Wednesday, April 10, 2001, at the age of 93.

Services for the first resident of Sterling House will be 10:30 a.m. Monday at 
Verdigris United Methodist Church. Burial will be in Tulsa Memorial Park 
Cemetery, under direction of Rice Funeral Service. Friends may visit the funeral 
home on Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.

Dixie was born Aug. 26, 1908, the daughter of Thomas and Mary "Mae" Latimer 
Willis. Born in the home of her grandparents, she discovered her life's work as 
she read scriptures to her grandfather.

Reared and educated in Tulsa, after attending Central High School she began 
evangelical work. When not preaching she worked as a bookkeeper in a Tulsa clock 
shop where she met Will Rogers when he came in for watch repair.

It was while she was holding a revival in Catoosa that she met the man who would 
be her husband for 55 years. His mother invited her to stay at their home during 
the revival. Troy G. Smith and Dixie Willis were married Oct. 9, 1936 and made 
their home in Verdigris. He died in April 1992.

In 1941, the couple bought a dairy farm. Troy also worked on road construction 
and, in the mid-1950s, ran a cafe near Hillcrest in Verdigris, catering to the 
turnpike construction lunch crowd.

They lived in California for a short time helping take care of Troy's mother, 
who had been injured in an accident. During this time, Dixie worked making 
electrical components for space ships. She continued to preach and minister.

In 1968, Troy returned to Verdigris to develop Dixie Estates.

Dixie Smith's emphasis was on the youth of her church. After her own children 
were raised, she opened her home to Oral Roberts University students. Many of 
these "adopted" children have gone on to ministries of their own around the 
world.

When Sterling House opened in Claremore, Dixie Smith was the first resident. 

She was preceded in death by her husband, Troy; brothers, Paul, Tom and Roy 
Willis; sister, Ruth Hughes; and three grandchildren, Kathy and Charles Garten 
and Patti Cross.

Survivors are her children and their spouses, Virginia Cross and Eldon of 
Verdigris, and Mary Beth Garten and Jim and Robert Smith and Betty of Banning, 
Calif.; six grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.
 
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We thank the Claremore Progess Newspaper for allowing us to post these obits on
the Rogers Co., OK USGenwebpages
http://www.claremoreprogress.com/
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