Heaven's Choir has a strong new lead soprano. The dynamic spirit and angelic voice of Garden City's Ann Dixon departed a badly worn out body, Saturday morning at Spanish Oaks Retreat and Hospice in Savannah. Born 15 August 1927, in rural Martin County, North Carolina to Nathaniel L. and Annie Gray (Ward) Cherry, she was proudly given her mother's name, Annie Gray Cherry. Lovingly nicknamed "Baby Gray", she grew up with the strong positive values of farm life, learning early how to balance hard work with joyful times of family singing and story telling. She'd tell you she learned the hard way, early on, not to name a pig that was destined to become dinner! Though not particularly assertive, she was bad to the bone on the Washington NC High School girls basketball team. In high school she shaped what these days would be would be college level skills in bookkeeping and basic business. She was applying those skills at Woolworth's in Washington, NC, when a strapping Marine, based at Cherry Point, spotted her and was immediately smitten. South Georgia PFC John Dixon wooed, won and married her. They'd soon make their humble home on the eastside of Savannah. While he worked at Union Bag, she headed back to Woolworth's, this one at Skidaway and Victory in Savannah, working as a bookkeeper-till two became three, than four. Firstborn was John, Jr. much better known around here by his lifelong nickname, "Sonny" Dixon, retired lawmaker and TV news anchor. 18 months later came a daughter, blessed to carry her name, transposed, Cherry Ann Dixon, now retired advanced math professor, Dr. Cherry Ann Dixon Ward, who taught at Jenkins High School in Savannah and Southeast Bulloch High School in Brooklet before moving on to teach at the college level in Florida. Ann Dixon did absolutely everything humanly possible to shape her children positively. She was active in PTA, band boosters and more, with remarkable talents in cooking, sewing, all aspects of homemaking, along with any and everything pertaining to motherhood, which she considered her most noble profession. But once Sonny and Cherry went off to college, she went back to work outside the home, this time as an essential partner in a new family construction company, Dan-D, Inc. In business, as in all aspects of life, she demonstrated unfailing honesty, dignity, faithfulness and loyalty. She was baptized into Christ sixty years ago and was a faithful member of Coastal Church of Christ. And that amazing voice rang out all her 89 years - in worship, at family gatherings, even in her final days, at Spanish Oaks. Her passing closes the book on her own family, she having been the last of seven siblings. Her legacy lives on in her own children, five grandchildren, two of whom reside locally, Byron Williams of Richmond Hill and Emily Dixon of Rincon, and a growing host of great-grands. The visitation will be on Tuesday morning at 10 with the funeral at 11, both at Thomas C. Strickland & Sons Funeral Home, 901 West Highway 80, Pooler. Graveside service and entombment will be at 2 p.m. at Hillcrest Abbey West Cemetery located at 1336 Dean Forest Road in Garden City. Pallbearers include nephews and spouses of granddaughters, Al Dixon, Tracy Dixon, Patrick Etheridge, David O'Donnell, Russell O'Donnell and Brendon O'Donnell. Remembrances may be donated in Ann Dixon's name to the Georgia Lions Lighthouse or to the Coastal Church of Christ, c/o 73 Azalea Avenue, Garden City, GA 31408.