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Patricia Dixson Obituary
DIXSON PAT DIXSON Realtor and Socialite Patricia Thompson Dixson, a top-selling Washington real estate broker and socialite, died December 22, 2015 at her Georgetown home, scene of countless elegant parties, political fundraisers and charity fetes in the 1980s and "90s. She was 72. The cause was Alzheimer''s disease, diagnosed when Pat was in her early 50s, at the peak of her career in high-end properties. Her 1989 single-home record that stood for years was the $14 million sale of the Foxhall Road estate of arts patrons Duncan and Marjorie Phillips. Pat''s knowledge of historic houses enabled her to guide clients through complex preservation codes. The last of her four personal restorations, the home where she passed away, was once occupied by Sen. Robert Taft. Her A-list clients included filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and Sen. George McGovern. When presidential daughter Doro Bush Koch and her husband were house hunting, Pat had to find digs that pleased not just the couple but the wife''s parents, President George Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush. It''s unclear whether the Secret Service had a vote. A lissome blonde who could simultaneously negotiate and flirt, Pat fully deployed her smarts and her good looks, debutante''s charm and that little ol'' drawl in her business and social ascent. "I used to think the further north you go, the dumber they think Southerners are, but it has worked to my advantage," Dixson told UPI in 1986. "I wanted to make a million dollars and I did that a few years ago." Born in Orlando and reared in North Carolina, she graduated with honors in French from Salem College, in Winston-Salem. She made her debut through the Terpsichorean Club of Raleigh. Pat worked as a department store model, staged fashion shows and did public relations. Her marriage to John W. Dixson produced sons Jay and Duncan before the couple divorced. With Jimmy Carter''s 1976 election, Pat, an active Republican, moved here at the urging of close friends and Carter insiders, tobacco heir Smith Bagley and his wife, Vicki. After a stint with Begg, Inc., she opened Pat Dixson, Inc., which handled tens of millions of dollars in sales before she closed the 22-agent boutique in 1996. "She was socially and professionally ambitious because she had two boys to raise on her own," says agent Jean Smith, a longtime Dixson colleague and friend. Pat tooled around in a 1976 Mercedes, called her women friends "the girls," and joyously chased the high life. For years she threw an over-the-top party in September, jammed with eclectic guests. "You never knew who would be there," marveled Kevin Chafee, a Washington Life editor. "It was a delicious mix of bad, old bachelors and divorced guys, women looking for their next husbands, plus journalists, politicians, socialites and her real estate friends. You always had a very good time." At the 1996 soiree, hosted with PR maven Janet Donovan, food ranged from delicate tuna tartare to Popeye''s fried chicken. Surveying the 300 revelers, one wag mused, "I don''t know whether this group is Green Book or Yellow Pages." A skilled equestrian, Dixson stabled Cobby Quick in Rock Creek Park, where she rode the woodland bridle paths. She was an avid fan of Northern Wolf, a failed 1989 Kentucky Derby and Preakness entrant partly owned by Dr. Howard Hoffman, her then-husband. The duo entertained grandly in Washington and at their home in posh Tryall, Jamaica. Pat later bought a cottage in Palm Beach. Even when she was too impaired to ride or give parties, she regularly hit the racetrack at Charles Town, WV, with her caregivers. She is survived by her sons, John W. (Jay) Dixson and his wife Kim of Annapolis; and Duncan Lambeth Dixson, his wife Angie and their children Lindi, Allie and Andrew of Rockville. She also leaves her cousin Ellen Lambeth of Vienna, VA. A celebration of Pat''s life will be held in the spring. Her ashes will be interred at Georgetown''s Oak Hill Cemetery.She is survived by her sons, John W. (Jay) Dixson and his wife Kim of Annapolis; and Duncan Lambeth Dixson, his wife Angie and their children Lindi, Allie and Andrew of Rockville. She also leaves her cousin Ellen Lambeth of Vienna, VA. A celebration of Pat''s life will be held in the spring. Her ashes will be interred at Georgetown''s Oak Hill Cemetery.
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Memories and Condolences
for Patricia Dixson
Mary Bird
January 4, 2023
Pat was a cherished friend. It is heartwarming to reread her obituary and remember her accomplishments and joie de vivre.
Louise Parsons
January 5, 2022
Still miss you all the time.
Mary M Bird
January 4, 2022
Pat's specialness is still unequaled. I feel privileged to have been a friend.
Mary Bird
January 4, 2021
Pat was a southern belle with northern smarts. She was a lovely friend, elegant hostess and incredibly astute and successful real estate executive. Her illness came far too soon and she is much missed and irreplaceable.
Louise Parsons
January 4, 2021
To Pat ... my dear old Salem roommate. Great times we had. I miss you.
Margaret Heimbold
January 4, 2021
Pat: You were the first person we met when my husband and I were buying real estate in Georgetown. Your energy and enthusiasm were contagious. In fact, many years after you sold us our Georgetown house, I became a realtor. Your circle of family and friends were always heartwarming. Who can forget your elegant parties and your gracious presence at them. May there be a place in heaven that today enjoys your ever present positivity and generous nature. We miss you. Margaret and Art Heimbold.
John Dixson
January 6, 2020
Mom...miss you tons , wish you were here ....Jay
Debra Samberg
July 27, 2016
I am so sorry to hear of Pat's passing. I was a neighbor and worked with her for a few years in the 90's. She was a smart, warm, gracious woman who I will never forget. My deepest sympathies
Fernando Lacayo
April 18, 2016
To Jay, Duncan and their Families, I share the grief of your loss as your Mom was a wonderful human being-
Kim & Jay Dixson
March 21, 2016
For Pat keeping your memory
Robert R. (Dusty) Schoch
March 19, 2016
Dear Jay and Duncan,
Thanks for the video of your mom's memorial service and thanks for those wonderful words. Marilyn and I would have been there if it had been possible.
Please allow me to add some afterthoughts to what I previously wrote to you and shared here. It's about the "good" part of the grief--yours, mine and all those who loved her. It's about that lump in the throat and the grief that will follow us forever. It's not all bad. Permit me to explain why I say this to you now.
Good Grief
There is solace in the suffering of your grief -- you will bear it for you both. It is your final gift to her, and it is a great one. All your pain and all your tears and all your grief are borne for you both. She is your silent beneficiary.
And believe me, she still IS. Pat is now in your realm and dimension of sacred. I personally don't know about God or heavenly hereafters and feel pretty sure I shouldn't make any assumptions about what or where s/he or it might be. However, I dototallybelieve in a thing or dimension I term, for want of a better word, sacred. When our puny minds try to grasp things like infinity, birth, death, and other things like indescribable beauty, true love, longing and grief over the loss of one truly loved, we fail miserably. We can't grasp these things with our minds or describe them with our words. But we do have clear physical evidence that we commune with and in fact sense the sacred in our lives. What our brains can't understand, our hearts can and do. One clear sign that our hearts are in communion with the sacred realm, where love and our beloveds never die, is that telling lump in the throat.
Love enters our lives with the feeling of butterflies in the belly. When the people we truly love pass from our lives in the physical sense, the butterflies take flight, as they must, as natural law has made all life migratory. As they fly, their loving wings set up a permanent turbulence as they flutter up past our hearts on their long treks back home. The turbulence is manifested by a sense that our hearts are in fact sinking. But since it's not our time yet, our hearts, though heavier, keep on beating for an indeterminable while. But the butterflies were always incorporeal not physical, but rather sacred stuff. That sacred stuff never disappears because it was made of a fabric that was never there in the material sense. But sacred things and worldly things have one thing in common - they all oscillate. When living things die, they cease to expand and contract as they did while they were alive, breathing in and breathing out. But the sacred part of living/loving things never ceases moving itself and us. We have no control over its movement in and through us, no will or power to cease commingling with it. As it eternally continues passing into and out of and through us, it always signals its being and its passings. That signal is the lump in our throat we get as the butterfly flutters up from the belly and past the heart. You will feel Pat in your throat today, and tomorrow and for as long as you (both) shall live in the very real sacred, loving sense, as the source of the butterfly's relentless migratory journey to us and from us and back again is infinite.
Love, Dusty 3 16 16
[email protected]
www.RobertRSchoch.com
March 17, 2016
I have just learned that "Pat' has passed away...I am so very sorry for your loss.
My husband, Bill, and I spent many good times with your mother some years ago, here in Washington. She was always such a fun, and gracious person, and I will always remember her very special laugh. We enjoyed our times with her very much.
With my sincerest sympathies,
Janmarie Prutting
Jesse Birndorf
March 16, 2016
Unfortunately I did not have the good fortune to ever meet your mother. But she left quite the legacy!!
Jesse
March 12, 2016
Dear Jay and Duncan,
I'm fairly sure you'll remember my name--Dusty Schoch (Robert R.--one of your mom's childhood friends). Some of what you might not know is that her parents and mine were pretty close friends, which led to my having been probably the first boy she ever dated. She was the first girl I ever dated and took to a formal (dance) party. She was 15 and I 16 at the time. Our friendship endured until the end. There were very few birthdays throughout her life when she and I didn't talk on the phone. Even years into her illness when I did most of the talking and remembering for us both. She had THE most vivacious and gregarious personality of anyone I ever met. She recognized and affirmed the "writer" in me long before others did when she'd respond to my letters with a comment that I should consider writing as a career. I followed her advice. I can't tell you anything about your mom you don't already know save perhaps this-- She was very close to and dependent on her own mother and lost her way too soon (in High School). I was a little jealous of how effectively she made herself a sort of adoptive sister in my own house. She adored my very literate and professional (attorney) mother and in a very significant way, likely made my mom one of her important role models for the career success she herself attained and enjoyed so much. It was a reciprocal relationship--my Mom adored Pat as the daughter she'd never have. She in fact lived with me and my mother a short time between her first and second marriages. You guys were very young then and might not remember. Duncan was just learning to speak at the time and the things he'd say would often bring that red glow to your mom's neck you will both remember. She's the only creature I ever encountered who blushed with her neck. But it would take this writer a novel's length of prose to properly describe the myriad ways in which Patty Jean was unique (her High School entourage called her "Patty Jean--the Tri-City Queen" for the fact she dated so many guys from High Point, Greensboro and Winston-Salem, never settling down for just one...until John). One (for me) very memorable anecdote that will tell worlds about your mom: She wanted the best for everyone she cared about. She often made us strive for those things. I, luckily was one of them. She knew (when I was 20, spending the summer at Wrightsville Beach), that my keenest ambition was learning to ski barefoot. Back then few—including me--knew that I was attempting the impossible...barefoot skiing with size 8 feet at my boat's max speed of 35 knots). I'm staying with a friend on Lagoon and she just shows up out of nowhere with a 14-year old barefoot skier named John Luther McClain (I think the brother of a roommate of hers). John's boat would do 45. Pat sat in the boat during my first 15 back-wrenching failures, encouraging me every time to "listen to what John's telling you...You CAN DO IT!" I was planting my foot in the water properly, but stupidly trying to ease--that is, slide carefully/safely--my second foot from ski to water, busting my butt every time. John Luther was telling me over and over—“Trust me, Dusty--you have to KICK it off and slam that foot down.” On try number 16 Pat and John waved from the boat to warn me about the shark swimming in the water beside us in the channel. Every muscle in my legs and back was screaming. But I finally did what your mom was encouraging me to do....I said to hell with the shark, and kicked off the second ski. I barefooted ecstatically for the next mile and never crash/splashed again.
Your mom's encouragement made all the difference in the world. It very well may have spared me from that shark, because I was really then feeling ...what the hell! The lesson (being willing to risk it all) has stuck with me for life, as has my love and unique fondness for your wonderful mother. By the way . . . I'll always be proud to say she was fond of me too. I was her "go to" guy for this and that problem for years. Friendships, true ones, between men and women not romantically involved are rare. I enjoyed one of those unique relationships with your very unique mother. In place of that relationship, there will for the remainder of my days remain a lump in my throat when I think of her. But there will also come that surge of . . . courage.
Take care you guys, and if you ever need me, just remember that my email and contact info is on my website - www.RobertRSchoch.com.
Love, and best,
Dusty
March 12, 2016 (only 4 days from her birthday). I only got word of her passing today; or I'd have written earlier.
Landis Neal
February 14, 2016
Dear Jay and Duncan, I have had you in my thoughts ever since I learned that your mom had passed away. The two of you were the most important people in her life, and she loved you dearly. I first met Pat when we attended Salem College in the early 1960's -- she was a freshman, I was a sophomore. We became friends and remained so for all the years that followed, both in Winston-Salem and in Washington, DC. Pat was such a fun person, and truly effervescent -- she "lit up" up a room simply by entering it. She was also courageous, doing what she had to do to provide a safe and happy home for you boys. I loved Pat, and will never forget her....Landis Neal, Reston, VA
Lynne Absher
February 8, 2016
Jay and Duncan,
Your mother was a spirited and memorable woman. I only knew her in a professional capacity and she was quite impressive. I really enjoyed having her as a client. I'm so sorry for your loss but know that she will always be remembered by those of us at PMR Associates.
February 4, 2016
Pat certainly leaves a fine legacy in her wonderful sons, Jay and Duncan, and their families.
Love to all,
Beth and Sandy Baldwin
Mark Livingstone
January 26, 2016
Praying for you guys, wonderful woman, what a great legacy.
Angie Dixson
January 26, 2016
I had the privilege to know Pat for only a short time and was very excited to have her as a Mother In Law. I grew to love her special personality right away and had the disease not taken her true self so quickly we would have been the best of friends. She shared with me on several occasions how thrilled she was that Duncan and I were going to marry. Pat is/was the only living grandmother for our 3 children, even in her state, our children were able to give her some joy. A slight smile, a squeeze of her hand, a chuckle - this is all we had and we cherished every bit of of it. As I write this, tears are coming fast. It's such a tragedy that her light went out so young. I'm crying for her, for me, for her sons, for all of those who knew and lost her. I imagine her as a beautiful Angel floating around in heaven, still with a little bit of her southern accent. I imagine her happy and free of this disease. God bless you Pat.
Kelly OBrien
January 25, 2016
I've known Jay for 20 years. I met his beautiful, vivacious, gracious, strong mother Pat only a handful of times, she lit up the room. Her passion for life was apparent the second I met her. Her grace, class, and character are traits that Jay has acquired simply by being her son. She was an icon and a legend and will truly be missed. Rest in peace.
January 25, 2016
Jay and Duncan, I am sorry for your loss. For as long as I knew your mother, her overriding concern and devotion was for your well being and your future. A wonderful legacy.
Howard
PATRICK LEWIS
January 25, 2016
Prayers and kind thoughts for Pat and her family. It takes courage to go through such a loss. I will always remember Thanksgiving in Georgetown.
January 25, 2016
Dear Jay and Famiily,
Your Mother was so special. With our sincere condolences and deep respect, Love, Pam and Tom Landry
Great Mother
January 25, 2016
I met Pat in the beginning stages of her horrible disease when I first started dating my husband(her son Jay).I was then invited to one of her infamous Fall Parties and at that point I thought, Wow, this lady is an Extraordinary person. Not only did she raise such an amazing man, the accomplishments she made on her own are legendary. I wish I could have known her more in the highlight of her career. But over the last 15 years when I would sit with her and talk to her, I saw an Uber-Strong women inside her now silenced eyes, fighting to hold on to her life and home that she worked so hard to enjoy in her later years. Pat's wish was to stay in her home until she could no longer, and she did! I have met many of Pat's friends and just meeting these awesome people and getting to know them has touched my heart and life. Pat I know you will be missed by many, many people, but the memory you left behind to Jay is priceless, you were a good mother, kind, loving and generous and taught him to be a strong and resilent person who enjoys life. Thank you for the gifts you gave this world and to many lives. God Bless and rest your soul, Your daughter in law, Kim Dixson
Jay Dixson
January 23, 2016
Pat. You were the best mom ever. We really miss you and wish you were here. Alzheimer's is the worst. You had to endure close to 17 years of the memory robbing disease. You were as tough dealing with your Alzheimer's as you were negotiating a real estate deal in Georgetown. See you in heaven. Love , your son ...Jay
Babs B. Reideler
January 23, 2016
Pat was a loyal and treasured friend of her alma mater, Salem College in Winston-Salem, and of us classmates. At our 50th reunion in April, she was lovingly remembered and missed by the 60 of us who attended, more than half her class. Pat enthusiastically embraced our first female president in 1990 and with her annually hosted beautiful alumnae events that inspired the large turnout of us area alumnae to see Salem succeed. We mourn her death and pay tribute to her sons, family, and friends who made her ordeal as dignified and comfortable as possible.
Mary Bird
January 14, 2016
Dear Jay and Duncan,
I so well remember meeting you when you were first in Washington. Your mother always mentioned how happy you all were to spend the first Thanksgiving with Collins and me and friends at the Georgetown Inn. She was a so special! You have my sincere condolences.
Marty Hollt Ruffin
January 13, 2016
Loved your mom through the years had fun seeing her in palm beach love to you
Sandi Birdsong
January 12, 2016
Dear Jay and Duncan and family,
I will always remember Pat's vivaciousness and charm. From our High Point days, growing up together to our many years in Washington DC, she "lit up" our lives! Please keep in touch with us, and know that she will be missed so much.
John and Sandi Birdsong
Linda Haan
January 12, 2016
So sorry to hear of Pat's passing. I'm grateful to have many vivid memories of fun times with her. My deepest condolences.
Louise (Price) Parsons
January 12, 2016
Dear Jay and Duncan,
I was you mother's roommate one year at college and also in her wedding. I've met you both but haven't seen you in decades. I will miss her so much. She was the best-- friend, roommate, hostess-- and always there to keep one's spirits up. I had so much fun with her when she had her place on Palm Beach. All my love to both of you and to the memory of Pat.
Josephine Galliher
January 11, 2016
I only attended one of your parties, but I remember it well! It was beautiful, elegant, and classy: like you. May God give you eternal peace.
Julia Cantlow
January 11, 2016
This is beautiful. Your Mom was special.
January 10, 2016
Pat: Thank you for your real estate wisdom so many years ago and for introducing us to your many friends and colleagues at your fabulous parties. You made your work and social lives look so effortless. May God rest your soul and may your family's memories be filled with the good times. With Sympathy, Margaret and Art Heimbold, Georgetown, Washington, DC
Ellen Lambeth
January 10, 2016
I--along with so many in the social and real estate circles of the District--will miss my savvy, beautiful, fun-loving cousin. But I'm grateful to her leaving us her wonderful sons, Jay and Duncan, and their loving families.
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