Dixie Jene Turner Melville

Dixie Jene Turner Melville passed away during a beautiful autumn sunrise on October 23, 2025 in West Wendover, Nevada at the age of 87. Autumn was her favorite season. She spent her days as she always had, comfortably at her home with her family including her faithful English Shepherd named Quinn who dutifully lay at her feet as always. Her last year's on this Earth were not the kindest as she dealt with strokes, dementia and complications from a failing heart but, as she always had, she remained foremost concerned about her children and their well-being having no concern for herself. As she would say her ticker just didn't want to tick anymore and it was time to see the Lord Jesus in his glory along with her family who had passed before her, especially two of her boys Cory and Randal.

Dixie was born on July 14, 1938 in Fillmore, Utah to parents Melvon Bash Turner and Mary LaVieve Turner (Day). She was the oldest of three children. Her parents at that time in the 1930's were working for William "Bill" and Anna Smith at the old State Line Cobblestone Service Station and Hotel in Wendover, Nevada along with Frank Sorenson, June Blanchard, Gene Jones as well as other relatives of Bill and Anna. The young couple lived in a small cabin just behind the service station next to the hotel. Being her first child, Mary had a few bouts of false labor and one in particular involved Anna using her own car to rush Mary to the hospital in Salt Lake City; only once again, false labor. Not taking any risks, Melvon and Mary decided that Mary would spend the rest of her pregnancy with her family in Fillmore until the child was born. Amazingly, thus Dixie's life would essentially begin in Wendover, Nevada and there it would end some 87 years later.

After her birth Dixie spent a few short weeks in Fillmore before Mary returned to Melvon in Wendover with their new daughter. Dixie spent her first 5 years in Wendover and then in 1943 during the midst of World War II, Melvon and Mary moved the small family to Las Vegas, Nevada where they had new employment and so that Dixie could attend Elementary School at the Las Vegas Grammar School located on 5th Street. In 2010, Dixie's sons Chris and Arturo took her once again to Las Vegas on a special trip to visit Hoover Dam and for a surprise reunion with her old Grammar School which is now the Nevada School of Arts. She received a wonderful guided tour of the refurbished facility by one of the schools administrators and while there she was also able to visit her old home on Lewis Avenue. She said she would always be grateful for this trip as it brought back wonderful memories of some of the best years of her young life while living in Las Vegas. She would often recount playing jacks during recess in the courtyard near the fountain of the Grammar School, wearing her favorite flower print dress and celebrating the 4th of July there, especially the parade which featured Roy Rogers and Dale Evans with Roy's famous sidekick horse Trigger. Not to mention at one point living next to a nudist colony, where her parents gave a stern warning to her and her friends that they were never to climb the tall back yard fence and look. I wonder?

In 1948 before Dixie finished grade school, the family which now included her two younger brothers whom she idolized, David and Gorman Brent, moved back to Fillmore, Utah where she finished Elementary and then went on to High School, proudly graduating as a Millard Eagle in 1956.

In 1955 Dixie met LaMar Fay Melville who was 5 years her senior. LaMar had just returned home from his service in the U.S. Army being stationed in Germany and Ford Ord, California. Dixie could easily recall him in his uniform getting off of the bus and walking into the Rexall Drug and Soda Fountain Store on Fillmore's main street where she was an attendant. She said he walked in, sharp as a tack, strolled to the counter and asked her for a Cherry Coke and that was all it took. Dixie and LaMar were married in February of 1956, Dixie graduating Millard High School as Dixie Jene Turner Melville.

Dixie and LaMar began their young marriage in Fillmore and then moved to Salt Lake City where LaMar attended diesel mechanic school and it was here that Dixie gave birth to her first child, a boy named Randal LaMar Melville. Shortly after, they returned to Fillmore where LaMar then joined in service with the Utah Highway Patrol. The young family moved around Utah, first to Wendover then Logan and finally back again to Wendover, that last stop was in the early 1960's. In all Dixie would bring four beautiful boys who she was so proud of into the world: Randal LaMar, Reese Fred, Cory Turner and Chris Joseph all of whom were raised in Wendover.

Dixie would recall that settling her little family in Wendover in 1958 was difficult as it seemed quite barren, harsh and lonely, nothing like her hometown of Fillmore. She would say she cried for weeks upon first arriving but then was saved in a way by several god mothers, as she called them, who took her under their wings to help her adapt to the isolated community out on the edge of the Bonneville Salt Flats. Though all of these wonderful women have since passed, Dixie loved them dearly and wanted them recognized in her obituary. Myrtle Garcia, Glenda Green, Loneta "Nita" Wadsworth and Marie Johnston.

Though Dixie and LaMar divorced in 1994 after 38 years, Dixie never remarried as she would tell her children, in her heart LaMar (Marri) was the only man she would ever love in such a way and there was no use in trying otherwise.

Like many of her age and generation, Dixie would often say that she had not done much in life that needed to be bragged about as she was only doing what any other wife/mother/woman would do. In the end of course she loved Wendover and took great pride in her community, her friends and those she worked for. Like any wonderful mother she fully committed herself to the raising of her boys and ensuring her family had everything they needed and sometimes even the things they wanted. She gave support through abundant love, hard work and even finances to family and friends as well, without ever asking for anything in return even if it meant she couldn't have the things that she might have wanted. As she would say, she was promised the moon but got something even better in Wendover. She said the lure of Wendover was spiritual and admitted that it likely had something to do with her being conceived in that small community on the edge of the salt flats, the place she would spend the majority, over 70 years, of her life.

Dixie Jene as her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles would call her, didn't have a career she had an extraordinary life; she was truly a loving mother not just of her own children but even a few she claimed on occasion from the community and neighborhood (you know who you are); a master homemaker turning even what may have seemed like a shack into a warm and welcoming home; a baker extraordinaire whipping up cakes, pies and cookies like nobody's business; a cook of creations where she could open up a cupboard and a fridge and see a feast just waiting to be made and if you knew her, food always tasted better at home then anywhere; a gardener whose green thumbs could create an oasis from a desert with just a little of this and a little of that and "walla" it was ready to be eaten, bottled or just gazed at; a resolute head of housekeeping for the State Line Hotel where she applied the skills passed down to her by her mother, aunts and grandmothers on how to make any space, even a hotel room, spic and span and feel like home away from home; a talented office manager for her son's aviation company at the Wendover Airport. She would often remark about her time at the airport being some of the most enjoyable in her life where she felt she could just be "Dixie" and spoil fellow employees, mechanics, aircrews and friends every chance she had; and finally a committed good friend to many who left this life before her and a few who still remain.

Dixie had many hobbies and interests she enjoyed including SF Giants Baseball, vegetable and flower gardening, baking including her favorite apple pie and orange rolls, cooking her homemade spaghetti, flying with her son, the natural wonders of the world like the Grand Canyon, the Tetons, Lake Tahoe and other wonderful places, watching Gunsmoke, The Virginian and Tales of Wells Fargo, an eclectic connoisseur of music of all genres especially in her last days wanting to hear Andrea Bocelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Sarah Brightman, the Three Tenors as well as others.

Dixie is survived by her sons Reese (Elizabeth), Chris (Arturo) and daughter-in-law Natalie of West Wendover, Nevada; her brother David (DiAnn) of Heber City, Utah; her sister-in-law Bunjob of Bangkok Thailand; grandchildren Skylar (Gretchen), Seth (Beca), Jennifer, Jamie (Jim), Joshua (Julene), Jessica (Anthony), Amanda, Rachel (Dwayne) and 16 great grandchildren: Grace, Hazel, Amara, Elliot, Marquel, Angelina, Anthony, Alexander, Lilly, Blakely, Jayden, Jude, Joslyn, Colby, Mavery and Adeline. And, someone who was her close friend, confidant and like a daughter, Cheryl Lisk.

She is preceded in death by her sons Randal (d 2025) and Cory (d 1988); her father Melvon (d 1999) and mother Mary (d 1986) and her brother Gorman Brent (d 2023). As well as two very close friends Antonia Prieto and Pascuala Lugo.

She will miss her hairy four legged guardian and friend, Quinn, who always made her smile and just wanted her to throw that darn Frisbee again and again and again.

From Reese: Mom you always believed in us no matter what, always believed!

From Chris: Mom, thank you for being such an integral and essential part of my life; from birth till your death and now beyond. I was blessed with the fortunes of having you as not just my mom, but my friend and companion in life here on Earth in as much as me sharing in yours; even unto its mortal and burdensome end. Denique Coelum ~ Heaven at last! I love you!

Finally, the family would like to offer their grateful thanks to the management and staff of the Nevada Health Centers Wendover Clinic, especially Rachel Grant, APRN; the doctor, nurses and staff of Genesis home health and hospice care all of whom gave support and care to Dixie in her last weeks and also Burns Mortuary of Elko for providing dignity and care of her earthly remains.

To honor Dixie's wishes she will be cremated and there will be no memorial service held. Her ashes will be placed beside her parents Melvon and Mary and her son Cory in a family plot in the Fillmore, Utah Cemetery where generations of her family (Turner, Melville, Day, Kelly, Huntsman and Jensen) have been laid to rest.

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