Dixie Rose Hatch Amberson passed away on Wednesday, May 18, 2016, at her Snowflake home from pancreatic cancer. Even with the grim diagnosis of inoperable cancer, she kept her wry sense of humor, and enjoyed the company of family and friends until her last day. Her passing was just two days short of her 84th birthday. A public viewing will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, May 27, at the Silver Creek Mortuary, 745 Papermill Road in Taylor. A family viewing will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 28, at the Main Street Chapel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Snowflake, with the funeral immediately following at 11 a.m. Her earliest memories were of Depression-era Taylor, where her parents, George and Dora Palmer Hatch, operated the G&D Hatch Mercantile Co. in the building where the museum is now located. She was the ninth in a family of 11 children. When store customers could no longer pay their bills, the mercantile was closed and the family moved to various locations, ending up in Phoenix, where Dixie graduated from high school. In between moves, she attended Snowflake Union High School for her freshman year. Dixie was proud of her four brothers, who served in World War II at the same time. After graduation Dixie lived with her sister, Glenna Sherwood, in Burbank, Calif., where she found employment, and enjoyed dancing to popular swing bands and starring in musicals. There she met Wayne Amberson, who would become her companion for eternity. They were married in the Mesa LDS Temple. Wayne was a concertmaster violinist and also a talented fiddler, playing with Western bands and in the movies. When Dixie wanted to return to her rural Arizona roots, she and Wayne moved back to Taylor and then to Holbrook. In Flagstaff, Wayne received his master’s degree in music education, and the couple and their growing family located in Cottonwood, where they built their own home and Dixie developed a lifelong passion for building and fixing up homes. No building project was too daunting for her, and she also planted trees and developed beautiful gardens, lawns and flowerbeds wherever she lived. She often said, “All my ancestors were colonizers and it’s in my blood.” The Ambersons shared their musical talents at church and community events. Dixie played piano or guitar and sang while Wayne played fiddle for dance bands. As their children learned to play different instruments they performed with the family band. The Amberson children include Jeff (Barbara), Lori, Rob and David (Dawn), all of the Chandler area, Jodi Flake (Keith) of Snowflake and Bruce of Logan, Utah. Dixie has 27 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren. Wayne and Dixie Amberson gave a lifetime of service to the LDS church, which was culminated when the couple served 18 months as senior missionaries in the Chicago, Ill., area. They enjoyed doing genealogical research together and attending the church’s temples. Wayne succumbed to a long bout with debilitating ataxia nine years ago. As a widow, Dixie continued to do many of the self-sufficiency projects she enjoyed such as home canning, gardening, quilt making and home improvement projects. She loved meeting with other seniors in a book club, and she wrote and self-published two books about her parents and grandparents. She traveled to Israel and Egypt. She continued to give service in church and community. When she was told by her doctor that her time on earth was short, Dixie vowed that she would “live each day to the fullest.” That is exactly what she did and had done for her entire life.
