Marie Dixon
1938-2020
Marie Dixon was born in 1938, the eldest child of Harry and Alice Clancy. She grew up on Devenish Road in Kimmage, Dublin. It was a brimful and lively house, busy with the comings and goings of her brothers Henry, Jim and Pat, and sisters Bridie and Alice.
After leaving school – St Clare’s in Harold’s Cross – Marie worked in the bakehouse of the Jacob’s biscuit factory in Dublin’s Bishop Street, a big city employer whose workers formed a communal bond that spread beyond the walls of the building.
It was at this time that she met her husband and best friend Brian Dixon at a dance. Marie and Brian were inseparable, a devoted, energetic and fun-loving couple. They married in 1968 and had five daughters: Jennifer, Orla, Caroline, Kelly and Jackie.
Brian sold industrial sewing machines for a living. He was well known in Dublin’s rag trade in the 1970s and 1980s. Funny, friendly and outgoing, Brian was often openly grateful to have met and married Marie, who was strikingly beautiful and effortlessly glamorous.
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They breezed through life with their children, their homes resonant with echoes of that Devenish Road liveliness. Early years were spent in Riverside in Coolock, before a move to Glendown in Templeogue and, when their daughters had grown up, Ballycullen on Dublin's southern outskirts. They lived close to Jennifer and Caroline, and doted with pride on their 13 grandchildren.
Brian died suddenly in 2011. Within two years, Marie was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. “Without him, her heart wasn’t in it,” says Jennifer.
While Brian worked in the clothes industry, Marie’s sowing was done outdoors: “She was magic in the garden,” says her sister-in-law June Clancy. She was adept at flower and flour arranging – expertly turning her hands to floral displays and bakery.
On Sundays came the "drive" – Marie and Brian would set off to Howth, Dún Laoghaire, Glendalough, Bray.
And, every year, there was a holiday in the sun. Brian insisted on it. Marie, he would say, deserved a good rest.