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Mar 29, 1919 - Jun 18, 2009
Dixie Mae Nicol Black passed away June 18, 2009 at the age of 90 in Sandy, Utah.
She was born March 29, 1919 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Grace Mary Nugent and Martin Leonard Nicol. She was the second of nine children, and her growing up years were equal parts Roaring Twenties and Great Depression. She attended Brigham Young University, interrupting her education to enlist in the Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, she returned to BYU and married a handsome young sailor from Southern California named Forest Black in the Salt Lake Temple. After graduation, they moved to New Orleans where she gave birth to two children. Three years later, they moved to Claremont, California where she brought three more children into the world.
She received her masters degree in teaching at Cal State University and taught English, physical education, and drama at El Roble Junior High and Claremont High School for more than 30 years, with only a 2-year interruption when the family temporarily transplanted to Quincy, California, where she taught English at Quincy High School. In addition to teaching at CHS and El Roble, she also taught at the other Jr. HS that briefly existed in Claremont named La Puerta.
After retiring from the California public schools, she moved to Provo, Utah in 1981, where she worked in the Provo Temple and taught English at BYU for several years. A heart attack in 2005 forced her to move in with family for a time and then into an apartment near family in Sandy, Utah.
She will be remembered for her love of God and family, her gregarious, fun-loving personality, her drive to teach and preach excellence in academic and spiritual matters, her wide circle of family and friends, and the numerous parties for them in her home. She enjoyed doing crossword puzzles and genealogy, and watching tennis. She loved BYU, New Orleans, rain and chocolate. She unstintingly championed the less fortunate and the underdog, which is why she never won a football pool. But there is no question that she made this world a better place. We will treasure her memory, even as we try not to begrudge her a long-awaited reunion with a vast host of family and friends on the other side.
She was preceded in death by her parents, six of her eight siblings, and her only daughter, Rae Lynn Black (CHS 1968). She is survived by her brother Jerry (Billie) Nicol of Gonzales, LA; her sister Lola (Gene) Nicol Warren of Gridley, CA; her four sons Darryl (CHS 1966) (Diane) of Evanston, WY; Landon of Hawthorne, CA; Lance (CHS 1973) (Erin) of Draper, UT; and Vonn (CHS 1974) (Myriam) of Colorado Springs, CO; and by 24 grandchildren and 35 great grandchildren.
Services will be held Wednesday June 24th at the Edgemont 12th ward, 350 East 2950 North, Provo, UT 84604. A viewing will be held from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. in the ward building prior to the services. Interment at East Lawn Memorial Hills Cemetery, Provo, UT.
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