Obituary, Courtesy Oxley-Heard, March 30, 2013
Lucile Phinney Dixon Bennett, age 96, of Fernandina Beach, Florida, passed away peacefully on March 27, 2013 after a brief illness. This lovely lady will be missed by all who knew her.

Lucile was born on February 1, 1917 in Williston, Florida, the daughter of Charles Hemphill and Annie Mary Anderson Phinney. She first attended school in a one room school in Raleigh, Florida, walking one mile each way. She completed two grades her first year and entered third grade at the age of six. She attended school through the eleventh grade in Williston, but due to the Depression, her school was closed and she graduated from Reddick (Florida) High School while living with her grandparents, William Henry and Annie McDaniel Anderson.

She attended Georgia Southwestern College in Americus, Georgia, and upon graduation, attended summer school at the University of Florida in order to obtain her teaching credentials, eventually receiving her diploma in 1953 from the University of Florida.

On April 3, 1938, she married Miles Dow Dixon, Jr. The couple moved to Hilliard, Florida and later to Fernandina Beach where she had lived since 1942. After Dick Dixon's death in 1970, she married Jesse Columbus Bennett, Jr. who died in 1998. Lucile began teaching in 1935 in the Levy County, Florida schools and later taught in Nassau County, Florida until 1972 when she retired. Her third grade class was the only classroom with a piano and she made music a part of the curriculum. Many of her students remained in Fernandina Beach and, amazingly, she always knew them and remembered their names when she saw them in local stores. She always glowed with pride when they told her how much they had learned in her class.

Music has been a part of Lucile's life since the age of four when she began piano lessons. She was an accomplished pianist who played her piano on a daily basis until the last weeks of her life. She was the church pianist for more than fifty years at Memorial United Methodist Church and was the pianist for the Edna S. Ward Sunday School Class until 2012.

Bridge kept her mind alert; she so enjoyed the game, she would have played every day if the opportunity had arisen. She was a life-long member of the Methodist Church and was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Lucile was predeceased by her parents, her two sisters (Teresa Riddle and Madge Brownlee), her two husbands and her only son, Miles Dow Dixon, III. She is survived by her only daughter, Jean Dixon Mann of Fernandina Beach, FL; two granddaughters, Lisa Mann (Edward) Hickey of Seattle, WA, and Laura Mann Polatas of Jacksonville, FL; and one great-grandson, Nicholas Polatas of Jacksonville, FL. Volare Small, her caregiver for more than two and half years, provided the love and security which allowed her to live in her home until her last illness.

Funeral services will be held at Memorial United Methodist Church on Monday, April 1, 2013, at 2:00 p.m. with Rev. Brett Opalinski officiating. Serving as pallbearers will be: Harry Mills, Darrell Benner, Nicholas Polates, Charles Riddle, David Allen and David Shoup. Honorary pallbearers will be: Paul Boles, Jim Murphy, Ben Dickens, Tim Powell and Chris Hackney. Her family will receive friends on Monday at the church from 1:00 pm until the hour of service. Interment will be at Bosque Bello Cemetery where she will be laid to rest between her two husbands.