Bill Dixon

Bill Dixon, 83 of Lincoln, NE, formerly of Malvern, IA, passed away Tuesday, June 25, 2024 at the Emerald Nursing and Rehab Center in Lincoln.

Memorial Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, July 19, 2024 at the Charles E. and Florence M. Lakin Community Center in Malvern.
Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service beginning at 9:30 a.m.
Burial with military honors will be in the Malvern Cemetery.
Loess Hills Funeral Home in Malvern is caring for Bill and his family.

Memorials: In lieu of flowers, family will direct memorials

OBITUARY
Billy Gene Dixon, 83 of Lincoln, NE, formerly of Malvern, IA, passed away on Tuesday, June 25, 2024, at the Emerald Nursing and Rehab Center in Lincoln.
Bill was born on September 8, 1940, in Prescott, IA, the oldest of three sons of John Pershing and Wilma Irene (Freshour) Dixon. He graduated in 1958 from the Red Oak High School in Red Oak, IA. Bill served in the United States Army, which took him overseas to be stationed in Germany for a year. After returning home, he married and settled in Red Oak, employed at Union Carbide in Red Oak in the 1960’s. His daughter, Margene, was born in 1962. He later worked alongside his father building homes in southwest Iowa and the Omaha metro area.
Bill and Ida Bess (Dickersbach) Henderson were united in marriage on May 10, 1974, in Malvern. Bill’s family grew to include her son Trevor Henderson. The couple were later blessed with a son Jonathan Blaine “J.B.” in 1976. For several years, they owned and operated Dixon Clothing store on Main Street, later expanding to locations in Carson and Crete, NE. The recession forced the closure of the stores, and Bill worked various jobs, finally settling in at Randolph Fertilizer Company, where he worked for over 25 years until his retirement in 2016. After living in town for a number of years, they made their home on the Ralph Bower family farm (a home Ida Bess had known from her youth where her cousins lived) just east of Malvern on Blue Grass Road.
Bill and Ida Bess were great supporters of Trevor and J.B.’s many activities, and hosted many sleepovers, noisy rock band practices, and meals for friends and teammates. They later attended their grandkids’ school activities, concerts, and events. They loved card games with family and friends. For a period of time, Bill was an avid artist, painting Western landscape scenes and portraits after learning acrylic and oil painting techniques from local artist and family friend Harold Wilkins. He was the perfect partner for Ida in the kitchen, dutifully washing dishes after her legendary meals or holiday baking marathons and teaching his kids how to make sausage gravy the right way on Sunday mornings.
In 2016, Bill and Ida Bess moved to Lincoln to be near family but traveled often back to Malvern to visit friends and attend special events.
Bill and Ida Bess were married 49 years when she died on January 2, 2024. Bill was also preceded in death by his parents; infant brother Hollis Russell Dixon; brothers-in-law, Burt Dickersbach and Robert McWhirter; and nephew Brian McWhirter.
Bill is survived by his daughter Margene McMullen of Savannah, MO, and her children, Jenna Gravett and her husband Shannon and family of Emerson, IA, and James Jipsen and his wife Jessica and family of Red Oak, IA; sons, Trevor Henderson and wife Janine and their daughter Ashleigh of Omaha, NE, and J.B. Dixon and Brenda Johnson and his children, Blaine and Emily of Lincoln; brother Doyle Dixon and wife Jeanne of Sylvania, GA; sister-in-law Sandra Kay McWhirter of Baxter, IA, Julie McWhirter and children, Hunter and Hannah McWhirter; and extended family and many special friends.