Shirley Hixson
Shirley Louise Griffin Hixson passed away on Friday, August 17, 2018. She was 85.
She was born in Cochran, Ga., and lived most of her adult life in Chattanooga. Her parents, W. Henry Griffin and Sarah A. Griffin, predeceased her, as did her sisters, Beatrice G. Waters of Cochran and Peggie G. Muldrow of Columbia, S.C.
She is survived by her husband of 65 years, Everett L. Hixson, and her three children, Everett L. (“Bo”) Hixson Jr. (Carol), Sara E. (“Laynie”) Hixson, and George G. Hixson (Michael), and her grandchildren, Everett L. (“Rett”) Hixson III, Samuel H. Hixson (Therese), Virginia A. Hixson, and Laura A. Dietzen, of Chattanooga. She is also survived by her brother, William H. Griffin Jr. of Cordele, Ga., and sister, Sarah Jane Bradley of Macon, Ga., and sisters-in-law, Shirley Harper of Chattanooga and Gaynell Smith of Rocky Face, Ga., as well as many loving nieces, nephews, and cousins.
Shirley graduated from Middle Georgia College and the University of Georgia. She met the love of her life, Everett, at Middle Georgia College where he played football in preparation for playing at Georgia Tech. Following her graduation from UGA - after she and Everett burned up the highway between Athens and Atlanta - she married him, moved to Atlanta, and began teaching school until she became an Army wife following Everett’s graduation from Tech. After the Army, she and Everett moved to Chattanooga and raised their children.
She came from a long line of Methodists. Her Christian beliefs and values were forged by the Methodist Church where she was baptized, raised, married, and soon to be buried. In her youth she was a member of First Methodist Episcopal Church in Cochran. As an adult she raised her family at St. Luke United Methodist Church in Chattanooga before joining Hixson United Methodist and ultimately First Centenary United Methodist where she was a member of the Morgan Sunday School Class and the United Methodist Women. She delighted in serving on the Scenic South District of the Holston Conference United Methodist Church Committee on Ministry for a number of years.
Shirley returned to teaching when her children were older and taught at G. Russell Brown, DuPont, and Hixson Elementary Schools before she retired. She was a member of the Chattanooga and National Education Associations. Shirley was a prolific reader and a member of the North Chattanooga Book Club. Fundamentally, she was always a teacher. Long before returning to the classroom, family breakfasts included structured daily devotions and dinners often resembled grammar classes.
Shirley and Everett traveled widely following their retirement. Their trips were generally for entertainment purposes but ever the teacher, she included an educational component after discovering Elder Hostels. She joked that “ABC” in Europe meant “another blasted cathedral.” Everett would smile politely and man the camera.
She loved sports, particularly Mocs basketball (men and women). Even though she and her siblings all graduated from Georgia, she bit her tongue while sitting with Everett through decades of Georgia Tech football games at Grant Field. She also loved supporting her family. She never missed band concerts, choir and handbell performances, piano and dance recitals, swimming and wrestling meets, baseball and football games, cheerleading, lacrosse, and any other activity involving her children and grandchildren. She was fiercely competitive. No referee was safe after making a questionable call against her team. Adults and children were known to slip from the room when she broke out her Scrabble board. She was a member of the Chattanooga Bridge Center. She and Everett played bridge throughout their adult life in bridge clubs and with friends, but later in life she had them traveling to tournaments where, for her, it almost became a blood sport.
Shirley loved life and she loved her family. Summers at Lake Junaluska were most special to her when her siblings, children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and friends would wander in and out of the old rambling house year after year. She looked forward every year to the Griffin family reunion in Cordele, particularly when she was wearing her red and black and teasing those who wore orange. She teased graciously however, and was a loving, generous, warm, feisty, and proud woman. In short, she was a classic old-school Southern lady.
Visitation will be on Friday, Aug. 24, from 5-8 p.m. at Chattanooga Funeral Home, 5401 Highway 153, Hixson, Tn. A memorial service will be at First Centenary Methodist Church, 419 McCallie Ave., Chattanooga, on Saturday, Aug. 25, at 11 a.m. with Dr. Mark Gooden, Dr. Linda I. McDaniel and Dr. David Harr officiating. There will be a reception following the service.
Burial will be on Monday, Aug. 27, at 10:30 a.m. at Chattanooga National Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you support the First Centenary Inner City Ministries or the charity of your choice.
Arrangements are under the care of the North Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory and Florist, 5401 Highway 153, Hixson.
Please share your thoughts and memories at www.chattanooganorthchapel.com.