Dixie J. Miller

Dixie J. Miller, 88, of Moline, Illinois, passed Sunday, April 5, 2026, at MercyOne Genesis Silvis Medical Center.

A small Graveside service will be held at 11:00 a.m. Friday, April 10, at Oak Lawn Memorial Gardens in Galesburg, Illinois, where she will be laid to rest with Chuck, her momma and daddy, Donna, and Diane. Cremation will take place prior to services at Trimble Crematory, Moline, Illinois. An upbeat celebration of life will be held Saturday, April 11, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Riverfront Grille in Rock Island, Illinois. Feel free to come drink a coke, “because things always go better with coke” or a Cosmo, and share a memory. Dress how you want as long as it’s not morbid. Feel happy that Dix had a good life and left her family with many memories and laughs. She made it quite clear that she doesn’t want anyone to dwell.

Dixie Joyce Garfield was born on March 6, 1938, the daughter of Albert and Genevieve June (Lundquist) Garfield. She was born in Galesburg, Illinois and shared several fond memories of growing up with her momma, daddy, and sisters, Diane and Donna. The sisters were called the Garfield girls. Her dad played steel guitar in a country band. The girls liked to sing songs and drink cokes at the legion. She liked to turn cartwheels with her friends. She remembers working for Senator James Thompson at age 6. His family took her to the capital building in Springfield. She used to sleep on her front porch and recalls military planes flying over during WW2. She told of her daddy bringing her home a brand-new convertible Olds to drive. She also remembered the candy rations and spoke of getting a stick of gum and making it last for a week. She thinks this is what started her love of candy.

In her teens she worked at Benner’s Grocery store and Sears. She talked about her husband Charlie coming to see her at Sears. He always had a nice clean car and dressed neat. She often spoke of her attire back in those days and her pretty olive-green dresses and Seersucker clothing. She talked about her momma making pretty little dresses for her with very little money during the depression.

She married Charles "Chuck" Edward Miller in July of 1957, and the couple soon had their first child, Timmy. She named him after Timmy on Lassie because she thought he was so cute. She adored Tim until her last day. She and Chuck referred to him as “the kid”. When she and Chuck moved to Moline when Timmy was five, he helped Dixie choose their first rental home on 34th street across from the old Baker’s Dairy. She loved sitting on the porch and watching the people and traffic go by. It was there that she learned of JFK’s assassination.

She spoke of the “old days” a lot. She was often making references to how people had pride and didn’t dress tacky like they do now. She admired the glamorous movie stars, dined at supper clubs, and enjoyed coffee and breakfast at the local diners.

Twelve years later, Chuck and Dixie had a daughter, Tracy. She said that times changed a lot between raising the kid and Tracy. She said it was like the Beaver Cleaver days when Timmy was growing up. This didn’t stop her from letting Tracy walk down 34th street and 23rd avenue on her own at age four to Roosevelt Elementary for kindergarten. Tracy always gave her a hard time about that.

Dixie had a great sense of humor. She was kind, witty, and appealing to all of those who knew her. She was very generous, felt deeply, and went the extra mile to help those that were struggling. She knew what that felt like. She grew up with little money and had a husband who preferred to save than spend. Dixie loved to spend. Spend time, spend money, and share good times with those she loved.

She was very gratefully employed by Eagle Grocery Stores for 36 years. She was pleased with her hours, rate of pay, and benefits. Mostly she was pleased to have her own money to spend how she chose. She also enjoyed playing the double diamond slots on the Riverboat and playing the lottery. She was remarkably lucky. When she did well, she would drive around with envelopes divvying up her winnings with her family. She always said, “give and you shall receive”. She thoroughly lived and breathed that motto. She retired from Eagle in the year of 2000, and shortly after had her first granddaughter, Lillian, or Lily Ann as she called her, followed by Sam, or little Sammy no-shoes as she called him. She loved the grand kids with all her heart and helped care for them a few days a week before they were of school age. She loved going to Von Maur and getting them cute clothing, wheeling them around in a cart at Super Target while filling them with jellybeans, and taking them to Panera to visit with her retired cronies at “the table”. As they grew, she attended their sports and school activities, drove them around, and always gave them a good laugh. As her hearing continued to decline, sometimes the joke was on her when Little Sammy no shoes would be playing his bumping rap in her Camry while she had no clue.

She cared for Chuck for several years after he fell ill of a stroke. Although he wasn’t always the easiest patient, she got him to his appointments, kept him fed, and managed his diabetes while somehow giving him a soda every day. She said that “he’s got to live”! Somehow her diabetes management skills worked and he no longer needed insulin. Nobody ever really figured that one out. About 99% of the time, it was best not to question her strategies.

She met some really good friends at Panera during this time. Those friends meant a lot to her and were great allies as she grew older and had more difficulty with routine tasks. People really liked Dixie. She had lifelong friends from her job at Eagle, from childhood in Galesburg, and her sisters. She loved her sisters and is going to be glad to be reacquainted with them again. She also made lasting relationships with her children’s friends, many of whom spent a lot of time with her throughout the years. She had a great relationship with two very close neighbors who lived across the alley from her. The neighbor kids on 22nd Street especially loved it when they saw Grandma Dix and her white Camry, as they knew that they were getting a candy delivery.

She was an eternally grateful person. She was deeply grateful for the neighbors and all of the support that they selflessly provided to her and Chuck in their later years. She regularly said, “thank god for those that help”. She wasn’t the gratitude journal type, but she made it known that she appreciated everyone that she encountered daily that helped make her life a little better and easier. She appreciated the agents at State Farm that would collect her payment when she pulled up and honked. She appreciated the folks at her hair and nail salon that would understand when she couldn’t get out because of the weather and looked after her and Chuck when they needed it. She appreciated the kid’s friends and caretakers. She appreciated the young man at Whitey’s who took special notice of her and made her days a little happier. She appreciated the people that opened doors for her. She appreciated the service department at Toyota, and found them particularly helpful, although she didn’t appreciate the salesman that said she couldn’t get Michelin tires. She appreciated her son-in-law for all the help and food he gave her and found him to be a genius. She appreciated his mother for having the family over for all of the holidays, and the other support she provided over the years. She appreciated Tracy’s special friend that served as a second mother. She appreciated her children and grandchildren for helping with the tasks she was no longer able to do. She appreciated her lawn care providers and had some great stories about Joe the Mow. She appreciated the Starbuck’s employees for listening to her yell at the order screen and drive up when she couldn’t hear. She especially enjoyed the notes that they put on her cups. She appreciated the employees and whoever bought her breakfast anonymously multiple times at Flips. If you ever did anything for her, she appreciated it.

Although she was very kind and generous, you couldn’t let the sweet smile fool you. She had a bit of a mischievous side to her as well. She had no problem calling a spade a spade. She didn’t like tacky. She didn’t like rude. Above all she didn’t like people discounting her because she was old. She would let you know “point blank” that she wasn’t “losing it”. She may have insinuated to her granddaughter on more than one occasion that her mom is the one that tends to forget things. And to set the record straight, she did get those Michelin tires.

She liked cars and was adamant about keeping them clean. Nobody could believe that she bought a foreign car when she got her first white 2010 Toyota Camry, but she thought it was okay because her daddy liked Toyota. Her granddaughter and grandson eventually drove that same 2010 Camry. She enjoyed updating her white Camry’s as the family’s need for cars changed when the grandchildren became old enough to drive. As she aged getting around was more difficult for her, so she made good use of her sparkly white cars. In her final years she spent a lot of time in them. She would typically start her day around noon, buzz through the drive through at Starbucks, and take her coffee down to the parking lot at Panera. As walking became more difficult, she couldn’t get into Panera easily. During the Pandemic she learned that she could hang out in her car and people would come chat with her. Getting in and out of her house wasn’t easy, so she used the restroom at Arthurs’s and Whitey’s when she needed to. She found joy in taking the kid to do his thing, going to Flips with Ruby, Janet, Lily, Sam, Tracy or anyone that was willing to go with her. She liked ribs at Miss Mamies, a Cosmo and wings or a BBQ at 11th hour, Frank’s pizza and chicken, Jimmy’s ribs, a maidrite, a margarita and tostada at Rudy’s, and of course Whitey’s. She told her doctor that she ate Whitey’s every day and that she wasn’t going to stop. When there were gaps in her schedule, you might find her nodding off in her driveway. Yes, people did stop to check on her. She didn’t care. Tracy’s friend nailed it when she described Dixie as managing life with humor and common sense.

During her final week she spent time with her granddaughter, who by some fortune made it back from Kansas two weekends in a row. Time with Sammy and Tracy on his 22nd birthday, time with her genius son-in-law, who was trying his hardest to fix her cable, and some time running the kid around. She saw the Whitey’s employee who was home for “spring break”, and the Starbucks employee that wrote her a nice note.

Although she may have not been ready to go, and those that she left behind would never be ready, she would be pleased that God had a plan that allowed her to go about her life as she intended until the end. She drove, got out daily, and didn’t end up at Hope Creek. She didn’t want to deal with any of that morbid sh#!.

Dixie is survived by her daughter, Tracy (James) Steffen of Rock Island, Illinois; son, Timothy Miller of Moline, Illinois; grandchildren, Lillian and Samuel Steffen; niece, Vicki (Doug) Tenhaaf; and nephew, Jon Yelm. She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Miller; parents, Albert and June Garfield; sisters, Donna (Hootie) and Diane Yelm; and nephews, Steven Yelm and Michael Tenhaaf.

The family invites friends to share stories and condolences at TrimbleFuneralHomes.com.