Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Jim (J.D.) Dixon


Last Wednesday, Jimmy Dixon passed away after a short battle with the Big C. On the top of Baldy, the flag at the ski patrol shack was lowered to half mast in memory of the Last Cape Roller.

Jimmy was a man with a very intense personal sense of right and wrong, like and dislike, friendship, loyalty and caring.

He grew up in Los Angeles surfing and hunting with his brother at night in the desert for snakes and lizards, which they kept as pets. He moved here in the late 1960s, at a time of enough tolerance and a place with enough space that he was able to live his unique lifestyle.

Among other things, J.D. was a brandy-drinking, glass-eating, blues-listening, cop-shop-window-shooting, old-red-VW-driving, hot-pepper-munching, classic-Schwinn-bicycle-riding, windshield-smashing, women's softball-coaching guy, who, whether you liked all his antics or not, was a friend of a great many people in the Wood River Valley. He was rough and gruff on the outside, but caring underneath it all.

For years, he had a dog by his side: first, Fartwell, and later 14 (who would climb high up into trees chasing cats and whose ashes Jimmy spread on the roof of the Hailey liquor store). Back in 1982, he coached a Bellevue women's softball team to a second-place finish at the state tournament, along the way teaching them the fundamentals (and his love) of the game. In those days, he jogged for hours carrying hand weights in the hot summer sun and wore shorts well into the cold of winter. This was a man who came from no mold—truly one of a kind.

As he wished, in the spring his ashes will be spread at a gathering of friends. In the meantime, write down your Dixon stories, unvarnished of political correctness, and send them to the newspaper, if you want or dare to, and, in any event, be ready to share them in the spring.

Jimmy is survived by his mother, Frances, a most genteel woman who lives in L.A.; his brother, David; his sister-in-law, Nancy, and two nieces, Casey and Cammie, who all live in Phoenix; and his sister, Carol, who came up from L.A. to be with him until the end.

The people at St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center and Hospice went out of their way to make his waning days comfortable, and to them a heartfelt thank you.




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