Helen L. Dixon

Helen L. Dixon, 84, passed away quietly Thursday evening, in her farm home in Viewtown, Virginia. Born 1934 in Belleville, Illinois, Mrs. Dixon was a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. City born, Mrs. Dixon for years taught kindergarten. In 1968 she and her late husband, John Dixon, bought and began clearing, improving, and expanding their first farm in Rappahannock County. There Mrs. Dixon, always an animal lover, was drawn to the unusual and rare, exotic animals. A self-taught farmer, Mrs. Dixon soon filled her farm with cattle and exotic animals that included zebras, camels, endangered African antelope, dall sheep, and water buffalo, among others. She also raised a variety of donkeys, emu, ostriches, and peacocks, and other fowl. Mrs. Dixon was well known as a cattle breeder. Amongst her contributions to Virginia’s agriculture was the import of the first herd of Simmental cattle directly from Ireland to her Virginia farm in the 1980s. She was the first in Virginia to use embryo transplant and artificial insemination in her breeding program. Mrs. Dixon also bred Brahman and Zebu cattle. She later turned to rare breed Legacy Dexter Cattle and Scottish Highland Cattle. By the 1990s Mrs. Dixon became an expert in both exotic and domestic farm animal husbandry, for which she was well known and respected. Since 2006, Mrs. Dixon has been active in the preservation of the rare Heck Tarpan Horses originally imported to the USA in 1959. At the time of her death she owned the only herd of Heck Tarpan Horses in the United States. Mrs. Dixon is survived by her eldest son, Dr. Gregory K. Dixon OD, an optometrist in Culpeper, as well as three other adult children, five grandchildren, two great grandchildren, and her loyal service dog, May. A funeral service was held on Wednesday, February 13, 2019 at 2 p.m. at Found and Sons Funeral Chapel, 850 Sperryville Pike, Culpeper, VA . The family received friends one hour prior to the service. An online guestbook and tribute wall are available at www. foundandsons.com. Found and Sons Funeral Chapel of Culpeper served the family.