Vera Dean Washburn "Vicki" Dillon

MADISON -The sun set on Vicki's beautiful life on Tuesday, June 5, 2007.

The funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, June 8, at Colonial Funeral Home. Interment will follow in Woodland Cemetery.

Vera "Vicki" Dean Washburn Dillon arrived in this world on July 6, 1934.

Vicki graduated from Madison High School and High Point College, where she played on both schools' women's basketball teams, and was a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta Fraternity. She shared her knowledge of NC history for 35 years as a teacher at Madison High School and Madison-Mayodan Middle School.

While teaching, she received Teacher of the Year for the Madison-Mayodan City System and Tar Heel Junior Historian Award Outstanding Advisor. She also coached Madison High School's women's basketball team. Vicki's great love for our local history led her to author "Avalon, A Brief History of a Fateful Town" in 1974. She was a member of the Alpha Delta Kappa International Sorority for teachers (Alpha Tau local chapter). Vicki retired in 1991 from Western Rockingham City School System.

Vicki was a very special woman to her family and friends. She had many talents that she shared with everyone through her painting, cooking, and gardens of vegetables and roses. She will be greatly missed but will continue to live in our hearts and memories.

Vicki is preceded in death by her husband, Billy I. Dillon, Sr.; parents, Lester and Hallie Washburn; and sister, Doris McCollum.

She is survived by her brother, Willis Washburn and sister, Yvonne Washburn.

She has two stepsons, Billy Dillon, II and daughter-in-law, Linda of Harkers Island, N.C. and Charles Dillon and daughter-in-law, Mavis of Madison, N.C. Vicki has five grandchildren, Carrie Ann Simpkins and husband, Chris of Rural Hall, N.C., Billy Dillon, III and wife, Meredith of Greensboro, N.C., Charlie Dillon, Dermont Dillon and Mary Ellen Dillon of Madison, N.C. Vicki has a great-granddaughter, Hunter Simpkins; and great-grandson, Gabrielle Dillon. She also has a special niece, Deanna Tilley of Brooklyn, N.Y. Vicki is survived by many nieces and nephews and great-nieces and nephews.

The family will receive friends from 7 until 9 p.m. Thursday, at Colonial Funeral Home, and other times, from 12 until 3 p.m. Thursday and immediately following the funeral on Friday at the home of Vicki Dillon.

Memorials may be made to the Raymond Cure Scholarship Foundation, Rockingham Community College, P.O. Box 38, Wentworth, NC 27375-0038; or Piedmont Land Conservancy (The Mayo River State Park), P.O. Box 4025, Greensboro, NC 27404.

Colonial Funeral Home of Madison is serving the family.

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