Oneda Dixon, 101

Oneda P. Dixon of East Hampton lived to be 101 years old, all the while remaining active in her church and the East Hampton Town Senior Citizens Center and touching the lives of four generations of survivors.

Her secret to a long life, said her daughter, Jacquolen Glover, was prayer. “She did a lot of walking when she was younger, and that helped her stamina too, I think, but she would tell you, ‘Look unto the Lord.’ That would be her answer,” Ms. Glover said.

Mrs. Dixon, who had lived on the South Fork since 1963, died on Oct. 2 at Southampton Hospital. She was well known here. “You epitomize what our community is all about,” East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. told her last year on her 100th birthday, Feb. 15, which was proclaimed by town and village officials as Oneda Dixon Day.

Born Oneda P. Turner in 1914, she was one of eight children of Claude Turner and Daisy Chambers. She grew up in Iredell County, N.C., and after finishing high school moved to Washington, D.C., where she and Ollie Dixon met. They were married in 1956 and came to East Hampton when Mr. Dixon was offered a job as a chauffeur. His wife found work as a housekeeper, and they raised their three sons and three daughters by working alternating days and nights so that one parent would always be at home. Mr. Dixon died in 1995.

“She was very loving, very giving. We grew up a church family. She raised us to know right from wrong, and she worked most of her life so that we could have,” Ms. Glover said. “She taught us how to work, be able to commit to a job, so that we could be able to be on our own.”

Mrs. Dixon was a member of the Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton for more than 20 years, and taught Sunday school there for a time. She later became a member of the Triune Baptist Church. Ms. Glover said her mother could often be seen studying her Bible and reading a book called “Praying the Bible: The Pathway to Spirituality.” Her mother, she said, was “a blessing.”

Mrs. Dixon loved to dance, sing in the church choir, read, and listen to Christian music. Her daughter recalled Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays when all the generations would gather to celebrate with the eldest family member, the matriarch. “It was a great feeling. You really don’t see that today. It was a joy for her,” Ms. Glover said. “The younger ones, I believe, kept her going. You know how children keep that spirit in you alive? I think that’s what happened to her. That gave her long life and pleasure to have them around.”

Mrs. Dixon was preceded in death by all seven of her siblings and five of her six children. In addition to her daughter, who lives in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., she is survived by five grandchildren. They are Angeletta Pilson and Riccardio Smith, both of East Hampton; Pamela Pilson of New York City, Kathy Queen of Prince George’s County, Md., and Kim Baran of Temecula, Calif. Ten great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren survive as well.

A funeral Mass was said on Oct. 7 at Triune Baptist Church in Sag Harbor. Burial followed at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.