Dixon has stories to tell

Published 12:13 am Saturday, September 10, 2011

Mima Dixon (left) sits for an interview by Carol Parker for a Beaufort County Community College publication. (Submitted Photo)

Editor’s note: Fifty Plus is a weekly feature that provides a look at area senior citizens, their accomplishments and their life experiences. Senior Saturday prospects are asked to fill out a questionnaire concerning their lives.

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This week’s Fifty Plus takes a look at Mima Dixon, who is a retired librarian and known as the Story Lady because of her appearances as a storyteller.

Where are you from originally?

Original Washington.

To what clubs/church do you belong?

Spring Garden Missionary Baptist Church; Jeptha Chapter No. 1, Order of the Eastern Star; Helping Hands Senior Club.

Education (list schools, starting with high school)

P.S. Jones High School, Durham Business College, Beaufort County Community College, East Carolina University.

If you weren’t doing what you are doing now, what would you be doing?

Media coordinator, K-5.

If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?

Pay off bills.

What is the thing most people don’t know about you?

Most people don’t know my middle name, and I’m not telling.

What is your favorite food?

Fish.

What’s the last book you read?

“Where Are You Now?” by Mary Higgins Clark.

What is your favorite TV show?

“Antiques Roadshow.”

Where would you go on your dream vacation?

Niagara Falls.

What is your pet peeve?

Not starting meetings on time and coming in late.

What’s the best advice you ever received and who gave it to you?

Always follow your mind. Nora Dowdy, a  high-school teacher, gave me this advice.

What’s the biggest difference between life as a senior as opposed to below age 30?

I’m busy doing the things I love to do (all 1,000), but I especially love storytelling. I also enjoy seniorhood.

Compiled by Mike Voss

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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