Dixie Madonna Hays, 74, of Elkhart, passed away on Monday, May 27, 2024 at 4:15 am at Riverside Village of Elkhart while convalescing from a recent health decline.

She was born in Findlay, Ohio to the late Norman E. and Cecelia (Greiner) Bibler and later married Marvin Dean Hays in Defiance, Ohio on May 6, 1973. He passed away in Rochester, Indiana in April of 1995

Surviving Dixie are her daughters Tonya (Tim) Buell of Elkhart and Tracy (Bernard) Todd of Dallas, Georgia; her brothers Billy Bibler of Sherwood, Ohio, Danny Coleman of Phoenix, Arizona and Steve Coleman of Marengo, Ohio; sisters Vicki Swary and Connie (Dave) Mendez, both of Ney, Ohio, Theresa (Craig) Swary of North Baltimore, Ohio, Dorothy (Joe) Burkard of Antwerp, Ohio, Connie McDaniel Of Celina, Ohio and Terri (Shawn) Woods of Defiance; stepmother Barbara "Barb" Bibler of Defiance, as well as a host of loving grand and great grandchildren, extended family and good friends. Preceding Dixie in death along with her parents and her late husband are her stepchildren Nick Hays, Gary Hays and Vicki Working, and a sister, Judy Fleming.

In accordance with Dixie's wishes, cremation is to take place and a memorial gathering of family and friends will be held on Friday, June 7, 2024 at Billings Funeral Home and Cremation Services of Elkhart beginning at 5:00 pm, followed by a memorial service there at 6:00 pm. Billings Funeral Home Chaplain Jeremy Sarber will officiate the memorial service and Dixie will return home with her family following her celebration of life.

Dixie spent the majority of her life working in production, but she did spend 11 years preparing meals in the Executive Dining Room of the Campbell's Soups Supply Company of Napoleon, Ohio. Her family said she really enjoyed that job, and we can only wonder if any of her old family recipes made it to their production line! Mmm, Mmm, Good!

She also worked as a parts inspector for a wiring company in Argos, Indiana named Ristance. She retired from there after 22 years when the company went out of business.

While no stranger to hard work, Dixie was more of a homebody than anything, and she was perfectly happy with entertaining her family and grands at her house. She loved working outside arranging flowers, growing vegetables and watching all of the wildland "critters" take turns at the feeders just outside her window. She also kept herself busy solving word search and assorted puzzle books and spending long afternoons sunning herself on the back deck. The kids would joke with her that she needed to come in out of the sun before she dried up. However, there was just one weakness that Dixie had that would be guaranteed to get her out of the house, and that was shopping. She didn't even have to buy anything; just the satisfaction of a slow, strolling browse down a retail aisle quite simply made her day.

She'll be best remembered for her consistently positive attitude, her love for laughter and her affinity to TV 'blooper reels", afternoon soap operas, old Westerns (best enjoyed with her son-in-law, Tim) and any kind of scary movie.

Memorial donations may be made to the charity of one's choice.

Charity of One's Choice