Ask the Memphian: What twists of fate led to the founding of the Dixon Gallery & Gardens?
A picture preserves the Dixon home as it looked in 1952. (Courtesy Dixon Gallery and Gardens)
When you consider all the things that had to happen, all the twists of fate that stood in the way, it’s something of a miracle that the Dixon Gallery & Gardens even exists.
That begins with the steamboat M.E. Norman, which sank in the Mississippi River on an excursion on May 8, 1925. The heroic Tom Lee rescued 32 people from the doomed ship, including 25-year-old Margaret Oates, as 23 other passengers and crew drowned.
Then there is the fact that Hugo Dixon spent all of World War I locked in a German internment camp with thousands of other British natives caught up in the conflict.
That was followed by the fact that the former Margaret Oates and Hugo Dixon, married in 1926, very nearly built their grand home in Houston with plans to spend their lives in Texas.
Add it all up, and the birth of the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, which opened 50 years ago this month, faced long odds.
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Hugo Dixon Dixon Gallery & Gardens Brooks Museum of Art Ask the Memphian Subscriber OnlyThank you for being a subscriber to The Daily Memphian. Your support is critical.
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Jody Callahan
Jody Callahan graduated with degrees in journalism and economics from what is now known as the University of Memphis. He has covered news in Memphis for more than 25 years.
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