Dixie Holler Pinson

The world dimmed when Dixie Holler Pinson passed peacefully on May 3, 2024. A true daughter of North Carolina, Dixie was born to Gordon and Margaret Proctor Holler of Charlotte on September 30, 1945. The youngest of three girls, she was a cherished, dutiful daughter of her beloved parents. To her sisters, Peggy and Glenda Gay, Dixie was simply “one of the best sisters in the world,” an affection unfaded by distance and decades. 

Reared in Rutherfordton, where she graduated R-S Central class of 1963, young Dixie loved to catch lightning bugs with her sisters and visit her adoring Granddaddy’s house in Lincoln County, where she also encountered the expressive faith of her mother’s folk at camp meeting. Alongside the sterner Lutheranism of the Hollers, such experiences awakened in her a lifelong ardor for spiritual authenticity and maturity, which she explored first at Christ Lutheran in Charlotte, and later at Myers Park Baptist.  

Asked about Dixie’s passion, her sister, Glenda Gay replied, “Learning.” At heart an educator, Dixie risked hard questions, unsettling answers, and bravely picked ways forward in life that expressed her incredible humanity and regard for the genuine good of her family, friends, and community. Her granddaughter Liz recalls that Dixie flowered after 50, soon thereafter completing the U.S. Marine Corps marathon, earning her B.A. in Psychology from Queens College, teaching English in Xi’an, China, and marrying the persistent William S. 'Billy' Pinson. 

For all her achievements, Dixie lived her deepest joys with her family and closest friends, for whom she was a vivid source of love and encouragement. The nurture of these important relationships in her life was everything to her. She is survived by her dear sister Glenda Gay Holler, her devoted daughter Jeri Lynn (Steffey) Bates and husband Warren, her loving son, Gordon Blaine Steffey and partner Julie, her beloved grandchildren Elizabeth Kaylor Bates Brown (Jonathan) and Michael Ryan Bates, and great-grandchildren, Blaine David and Kaylor Wren Brown. Dixie is also survived by treasured friends, old and new—David, Becky, Tatton Park friends and others—who shared life’s roads with her and enriched her journey. Forever in our hearts, sweet Dixie.           

A memorial service celebrating Dixie’s life will be held at 2:00 PM, Saturday, May 18, 2024, Myers Park Baptist Church, 1900 Queens Road, Charlotte, NC 28207. The family will receive friends in Heaton Hall at the church, following the memorial service.

In lieu of flowers, we encourage a memorial gift to the Polycystic Kidney Foundation ( pkdcure@pkdcure.org )  or the Hugh Chatham Health Hospital Foundation, P. O. Box 560, Elkin, NC 28621.