Obit – Mrs. Jo Helen Dixon Murphy

Mrs. Jo Helen Dixon Murphy, of the Gladdice community, died at the Knollwood Manor Heath Care in Lafayette four days after her 94th birthday. She had made her home there since March 22, 2021 and was pronounced deceased at 6: 49 p.m. Saturday evening, April 30, 2022.

Funeral services from her beloved Smith Memorial United Methodist Church were conducted by her pastor, Rev. Tim Dunavant, and her nephew, Bro. Steve Waller. A great niece, Shawna Dixon Zody, read the obituary and another nephew, Ricky Dixon, delivered the eulogy. Following the 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, May 3rd, services burial was beside her husband of over sixty four years in the Defeated Creek Memorial Gardens.

Mrs. Murphy was one of four children, twin sons and two daughters, born to the late Alfred Edward (Booster) Dixon, who died at the age of 81 on August 12, 1988, and Annie Lee Graham Dixon, who died at the age of 77 on June 17, 1984, and was born Jo Helen Dixon in the Kempville community on April 26, 1928.

Also preceding her in death was a sister, Maude Ella Dixon Waller, who died June 5, 2012 at the age of 81, and twin brothers, Ray J. (Wee) Dixon, who died November 3, 2018 at the age of 84, and J. W. (Biggen) Dixon, who died July 23, 1986 at the age of 52.

A sister-in-law, Imo Sadler Dixon, died August 2, 2020 at the age of 80, and a brother-in-law, Hiram Stanford Waller, died July 29, 1997 at the age of 79.

In Lebanon on March 8, 1946, she was united in marriage to Gladdice community native, longtime United Methodist minister Draper Hoyte (Gus) Murphy, who died at the age of 87 on October 28, 2010. The ceremony was performed by Justice of the Peace W. H. Conatser.

Mrs. Murphy was a housewife who loved children and was the babysitter to numerous children during her lifetime. The amazing thing was how much the children loved her back.

Mrs. Murphy was a devoted and dedicated member of the Smith Memorial United Methodist Church in the Smith Bend community of Jackson County.

She is survived by her loving and special daughter, Cricket Murphy Mitchell of the Gladdice community; sister-in-law, Polly Givens Dixon of the Buffalo community, and thirteen nieces and nephews who saw that she wanted for nothing.

The Murphy, Dixon, and Waller families request memorials be made to the Smith Memorial United Methodist Church.

SANDERSON of KEMPVILLE