Howard R. Dixon Jr.

Beloved husband, father and grandfather, Howard R. Dixon, Jr., passed away on March 20, 2018 at the age of 91. Howard was born on February, 27, 1927 in Liberty, Mississippi. He worked on the family farm as a boy, growing mostly cotton, and he liked to say that he started his adult working life when he was 14 after he planted and harvested an entire field of cotton all by himself. After attending public schools in Liberty through and including high school (where he rode in a log truck to and from school), he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1945. As an infantryman, he was training for the potential land invasion of Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (he always said Harry Truman saved his life), so he was redeployed and finished out his military service with the Allied Occupation Force in Europe. After receiving an honorable discharge from the Army, he returned home to Mississippi and attended Southwest Mississippi Junior College and Mississippi State University, graduating in 1951 with a bachelor of science degree in agricultural sciences. After college, he moved to Pasadena, Texas and worked for the Ethyl Corporation, where he was active in the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union. Later, he decided it was time for a change and so in the late 1960s, while working full time at Ethyl to support a wife and new baby, he went to night school at South Texas College of Law, earning his J.D. degree in 1970. He spent many years in private law practice before serving as the presiding judge of the City of Pasadena Municipal Court from 1987-1993. After leaving the City in 1993, he worked as a hearing officer with the Harris County Probable Cause Court, before finally retiring in 2005 at the ripe old age of 78. He was preceded in death by his parents, Howard R. Dixon, Sr. and Ada Durham Dixon. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Joe Ann Dixon, children Laurie Dixon (Mike Wilson), Howard R. Dixon, III ("Russ"), Scot Dixon (spouse, Cristina Caudilla Dixon), and Erin Dixon Harris (spouse, Jonathan Harris), grandchildren John Russell Dixon, Emily Harris, Colin Dixon, James Dixon, and Andrew Harris, his beloved first cousin (and surrogate sister) Eva Frances Dixon Phares, and special friend James Allen Causey, as well as by numerous friends and former colleagues. We all love you Daddy and Granddaddy!

Visitation will begin at 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Friday, March 23, 2018 and the Funeral Service will start at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 24, 2018 both at Forest Park Lawndale Funeral Home. Interment to follow the funeral service with Army honors in Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery.