Arvenia Dorothy Dixon

Arvenia D. Dixon, 97, of Houston, TX, passed away on February 15, 2024. A graveside service will be held for her at Killeen City Cemetery on Wednesday, February 21 beginning at 2 pm. Visitation will be held at Harper-Talasek Funeral Home prior to the service, beginning at 11 am. 

Arvenia Dixon was born in Houston, Texas to parents, Lillie Rebecca Bailess, nee Barbee and John Rueben Barrow, and lived in the downtown area of that city until the age of seventeen. World War II was in full swing in 1943 when she and her best friend, Lucille, graduated from Sam Houston High School and boarded a train for California. She stayed there for six months but decided California was not for her, so she returned to Texas.

She met Lloyd Dixon on a blind date arranged by her cousin John. John and Lloyd worked together at Southwestern Bell. Arvenia and Lloyd married 3 months later in a double wedding with John and his girlfriend, Margie.

They raised 3 children, first in an area of Houston called Spring Branch and later, as the children got older, they moved to Cypress Fairbanks where the kids completed high school.

Arvenia worked as an executive secretary for 20 plus years for Shell Oil Company before retirement. In 1996 they would have been married 50 years, but Lloyd preceded her in death three months before their anniversary. Following the loss of her husband, Arvenia joined the local YMCA. There she made many new friends, some who became her traveling companions. She joined a volunteer group called Southwestern Bell Pioneers Talking Books where retirees repaired audio equipment for the blind as a legacy to Lloyd's service to Southwestern Bell. 

In 2010 Arvenia sold the family home in Tower Oaks after living there for 43 years. She settled in an independent living retirement complex a few miles away. There she met lifelong friends and became a beloved member of that new community. On one of her trips to China she learned to play Mahjong and joined a Mahjong group at her new home.

She loved to garden, especially creating azalea flower beds, most of which are still thriving at the old house on Campos Street. She loved to shop for shoes, clothes and antiques. She had the same beautician for forty years. She enjoyed oysters on the half shell, walking the beaches of Galveston, and wading in the surf. She loved traveling the world and visited China on three different occasions. She rode a camel in Egypt, took riverboat down the Yangtze River, and was intrigued by the locks of the Panama Canal. She has been to England, Scotland, Amsterdam, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Egypt, China, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Mexico, Canada, and Morocco.

Arvenia was raised as an only child but truly enjoyed being a member of a larger family when she married into the Dixon clan. She was known as "Aunt Beanie" by her nieces and nephews and was instrumental in raising her four grandchildren. She was overjoyed at the birth of her great-grandchild. Two months prior to her passing she was joyful to celebrate the wedding of her granddaughter. 

Arvenia is survived by her son, Mark Dixon and his wife, Maureen; daughters, Sharon Arrington and Wanda Isbell; grandchildren, Casey Arrington and his wife, Katie, Matthew McBride, Madeline Thornton and her husband, Josh, and William Dixon; and her great-grandchild, Cohen Arrington. 

In closing, the family would like to say thank you to "Heart to Heart Hospice Care" who's staff offered kindness and unfettered compassion to Arvenia and her family in the last moments of a full life spanning 97 years. She will be greatly missed. In lieu of flowers, please send memorials to a hospice of your choice.