Dixie Wheaton

Dixie Lee Wheaton was born on Friday, June 12th, 1940 to Len Walters and Evelyn Walters (née Dory) in Des Moines, Iowa. Evelyn passed away when Dixie was young, then she was adopted by Eulala Nicholson Walters. Despite their lack of blood relation, Eulala and Dixie would remain strongly devoted to each other as mother and daughter for the rest of their days, and this spirit of devotion and love would go on to define every other aspect of Dixie’s life. 

After moving several times during her childhood, Dixie and Eulala put down roots in Kansas City in 1955. Dixie met Glen Wheaton while living in Warsaw, Missouri, and married him after graduating from William Chrisman High School, Independence MO, in 1958. The two would move into a cozy house on Outlook Street in Mission, Kansas, where they would spend the next 65 years devoted to one another as the prototypical midwestern married couple, with Glen as the stoic, hardworking husband, and Dixie as the busy, gracious wife. The two would also raise two excellent daughters; Cathi and Chris Wheaton. 

Dixie was a wife, mother, and grandmother sine qua non, with a marvelous ability to make anyone feel welcomed and at home. She loved nothing more than cooking dinners for big family get-togethers, which she insisted on hosting at her house whenever possible. Hot cinnamon jello, deviled eggs and cheesecake were a frequent staple at these meals. Her greatest joy was in bringing people together, be it the intimacy of baking cookies with the grandkids or the hustle and bustle of massive family reunions. This love of family also extended to her local community; when she wasn’t making memories with her family, she was crafting gifts for charity, dancing in her square dance clubs, serving the Merriam Christian Church, and planning travel adventures. She spent several years working in a realtor’s office, proving that, no matter where she went or what she did, she always helped to make a house feel like a home, and could make anyone feel like family. 

Dixie died of heart complications on Monday, June 17th, 2024, five days after her 84th birthday, and is survived by her husband of 65 years Glen, daughters Cathi Halberstadt (husband Tom) and Chris Wheaton, grandchildren Lynza (wife Lauren), Weston (husband Juan), Jaret, and Isaac, and great-grandchild Harvey, as well as innumerable in-laws, cousins, nieces, and nephews once, twice, and three-times removed. Among her surviving family can be found farmers, doctors, scientists, and educators. Yet it is not merely by the accomplishments of her progeny that Dixie Wheaton left the world richer. The ties that bind this extensive social network together were forged from Dixie’s own deep sense of selflessness and love of family and community, and as the clan continues to grow, so too do those values. They are the very bedrock of Dixie’s legacy, and, just as Dixie strove, in her humble, kindhearted way, to make the world a better place when she was alive, so too will her family, connected and enriched with those values, continue to connect and enrich others long after her passing. 

A memorial service for Dixie will be July 16th 4pm at Merriam Christian church (9401 Johnson drive, Shawnee KS) with a light dinner there following the service.

Private burial service July 17th at Oak Grove cemetery (38000–38190 E Hillside School Rd Oak Grove, MO) 

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for contributions to be made to a fund at Merriam Christian Church set aside for a long lasting memory of a tree and plantings.