Dixon, Frank M. (Frank Murray), 1892-1965

Dixon was born 1892 July 25 to Frank and Launa Murray Dixon in Oakland, Cal. In 1906 he entered Phillips Academy in Exeter, N.H.; then attended Columbia University for one term. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1916 with an LL.B., and was admitted to the Ala. bar in 1917. That same year he entered the U.S. Army and fought overseas in World War I. He was attached to the French Army as an aerial observer. On 1918 July 21 he was wounded, which caused the amputation of his right leg. For his efforts he received the Chevalier Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre with Palm, as well as the Purple Heart.

He resumed his law practice in 1919 in Birmingham, Jefferson Co., Ala., as a member of the firm Bowers and Dixon. In 1920 he married Juliet Polly Perry. He practiced law until his election as governor of Ala. in 1938, serving in that office from 1939 until 1943. While governor Dixon supported the merit system, higher funding for education and road building, the secret ballot, and many other programs.

After his term as governor, Dixon resumed his law practice with Bowers, Dixon, Dunn, and McDowell, in Birmingham, and from 1948-1951 was a leader in the Dixiecrat movement that opposed the civil rights and trade union policies of the Democratic Party under President Harry S. Truman on the grounds that it violated the rights of the individual states and helped spread communism. He was the keynote speaker at the 1948 Dixiecrat convention in Birmingham.

He and his wife had two children, Sam Perry and Launa Murray. He joined many clubs and organizations. Among those he joined were the: Redstone Club (Birmingham, Ala.), Kiwanis Club, American Bar Association, American Legion, VFW, Disabled American Veterans, and several others. He died 1965 Oct. 11 in Birmingham.

From the description of Papers, 1924-1965. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122387780