Dixie Propp

Dixie Propp

Dixie Lindsay was born in October 1932, in Brookings, S.D., to Mildred and Dick Lindsay. She was adored by her parents and older brother, Doug, for her tomboy spirit and her beautiful smile. Despite being formally named after her mother, she was called Dixie after her dad. The family moved throughout the southern U.S and Texas, as well as Mexico and El Salvador during the deepest parts of the Great Depression. She told stories about visiting a still-hot lava field, riding burros and watching the courting ritual of young women and young men parading around a plaza at twilight. She spoke and understood Spanish passingly. At 10, her sister Judy was born and she had to learn how to be a big sister. She loved physical activity and enjoyed her duties as a lifeguard at the public pool in Tennessee. She also took the stage in a few high school dramas.

After graduating from Knoxville High School in 1950, she attended Middle Tennessee State University majoring in physical education and then transferred to Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She belonged to the Alpha Delta Pi sorority. She met Milton Propp of Muscogee, Okla. while both were attending SMU and he was preparing for seminary. She received a bachelor's degree in physical education. They married in Dallas in 1954. She became a minister's wife, a public-school teacher, and the mother of three children, David Propp, Melissa McCarthy (Propp) and Wren Propp. The family lived in Oklahoma, West Texas and New Mexico as they were assigned to United Methodist churches in the West Texas/New Mexico Conference.

She was a life-long learner. At turns, she could be kind or acerbic. She could not sing and loved hymns. She attended courses at University of Texas El Paso, Sul Ross University and the University of New Mexico. She received a master's degree in special education from UNM. She became a special education teacher and taught a gifted program at Onate Elementary in Albuquerque for many years.

Her parents and grandparents were longtime residents of El Paso and she was able to visit them frequently. When her children were young, the family camped and traveled. She and Milton traveled widely, including a two-month stay in Cornwall, Great Britain, in a ministerial exchange where she learned enough about cricket to wonder why people played it and longed for the dry heat of her beloved desert Southwest. She loved hiking, swimming, Jazzercise, walking their long-lived dog Muggs and pondering the beautiful Sandias on her daily hike up Bear Canyon Arroyo in Northeast Albuquerque.

She loved her children. She deeply enjoyed caring for her grandchildren, Jacob Propp and Elise and Riley McCarthy and lovingly welcomed sons-in-law, Timothy McCarthy (Melissa) and Karl Moffatt (Wren).

Dixie taught school for nearly 60 years, not retiring from Albuquerque Public Schools until her late 70s. She loved teaching children how to read and loved reading herself. Milton and Dixie were married for 63 years, until Milton's death in May 2019. She was cared for by her children at her home in northeast Albuquerque for a few more years until dementia took so much of her that she needed more care than they could provide. Caregivers supported Dixie as if she was their own. Dixie died in June 2025, in Albuquerque at Brookdale Senior Living. Cremation has taken place. A memorial event is planned for December 2025. Please support Locker #505 (locker505.org) in lieu of flowers.