Hall of Fame cartoonist Judith “Judy” McCormack Dixon died July 7 in De Soto at age 95.
Mrs. Dixon enjoyed a 70-plus-year career as an artist, the last 25 or so as an editorial cartoonist for the Leader. Her last cartoon appeared in the May 20, 2021, issue, and she officially retired the following month.
Dixon’s work consistently earned Missouri Press Association awards, including first place for cartoons rendered in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Named to the Missouri Press Association Hall of Fame in 2014, Mrs. Dixon already was the recipient of many local, state and national awards.
“She could deliver a well-pointed barb, but usually with a sense of whimsy and fun,” retired editor and publisher Patrick Martin said in his farewell editorial last year. “She is a joy – and a weapon – any editor would love to have.”
Mrs. Dixon was born Jan. 15, 1927, in Festus, the daughter of the late Harold and Verna (Thomas) McCormack. She began drawing at a young age.
“I drew my first recognizable figure at age 2,” she said at the time of her Hall of Fame induction. “There was never any question that I would work as an artist.
“I love it.”
She graduated from Washington University in 1949 with a fine arts degree and worked for a time as an illustrator for Concordia Publishing in St. Louis.
“She wanted to be single and study art in Paris,” said her daughter, Dru Dixon of De Soto. “Then she fell in love with my father.”
She married LeRoi “Lee” Dixon, a professional fundraiser, and they raised five children while moving more than 25 times to locations across the country. They returned to Jefferson County for good in 1977, and she took a job with the former Daily News Democrat in the advertising department.
Her children benefited from their mother’s talent even as small children.
“If my older sister was having trouble completing a drawing of Cleopatra, here my mother would come, giving her the perfect cat eye,” Dru said. “When I was about 5, I went through a period of night frights, and she would soothe me by drawing sleeping kittens. I can vividly remember their bodies shaped like a ball and their tails curled around them.”
Mrs. Dixon’s artistic talent extended to other mediums.
“She was such a talented seamstress and designer,” said older daughter Barbara O’Barr of Texas. “She made me a dress one time out of some petticoats, and it was the most beautiful thing. Everybody wanted one like it. And we always had the most amazing Halloween costumes.”
Mrs. Dixon did portraits of her children and others.
“I can remember an unfinished ink of Martin Luther King Jr. looking back at me from her art table,” Dru said.
Mrs. Dixon also drew children’s book illustrations and horror comics, as well as numerous fashion designs. She illustrated Bible stories, designed advertisements and drew greeting cards.
“I remember one time she got a call to do a drawing on real short notice for a lobster dinner,” Barbara said. “She did the cutest little picture of a lobster sitting at a table wearing a bib – and all in about 45 minutes.”
But there was more to their mother than art, Mrs. Dixon’s children say.
“She possessed a steely determination that can only come from living through the Great Depression,” Dru said. “My father’s occupation was quite up-and-down when I was little, but thanks to my mother, we never went without.”
Mrs. Dixon enjoyed newspaper work, in spite of the deadline pressure.
“She just loved it at the Leader, loved all the people, loved being part of it,” Dru said.
Failing health led to her retirement, and Mrs. Dixon continued to decline over the past months. She had a stroke in late June and was on hospice at the home she shared with Dru when she passed away peacefully.
“When she retired, people thought she gave up her pencil. But that just isn’t true,” Dru said, showing off a portrait her mother did in late 2021 of rock musician Walter Egan. “She was an artist until the very end.”
Mrs. Dixon was Methodist and a member of the Phi Mu sorority. In addition to her children Dru and Barbara, she is survived by twins Greg Dixon of Douglassville, Pa., and Pamela Calabrai of Washington, Gary Dixon of Tucson Ariz., as well as eight grandchildren: Sarah, Brandon, Jax, Max and Blakely Calabria, Erica and Clayton O’Barr and Wesley Dixon; and one great-grandchild: Hayden Jones.
Mrs. Dixon chose to be cremated and her ashes scattered with those of her late husband.