Dixie Coaches

Jim Tighe - Deceased 1942 - 2012

March 10, 1964 - April 27 2012
There is a thread on here with a photo of the name plate on a Dixie in a junk yard, but I cannot find it, so will start from scratch here with some more Dixie info. I had never heard of Dixie before that other thread, but I have stumbled across some interesting Dixie info. My cousin in Colorado tells me he drove two Dixies in El Paso, TX, in the early '60's, a '58 Olds with fuel injection and a '59 Pontiac with the Tri-Power 3-carb setup. Both were low-headroom ambls stretched from wagons, had heavy duty cooling systems and tranny coolers, and were very fast. They were used on out-of-town runs because they were much faster than the 2 Cads - a '56 and a '57 - the firm owned. ( This was before med-evac choppers. ) He said the Cads held 2 patients, vs. just 1 in the Dixies. He also mentioned that the warning lights on the Dixies were rather crude add-ons, unlike the ones on the Cads. I had no idea he had ever done this sort of thing, and he had forgotten about it until I e-mailed him about going to Piqua, etc. Wouldn't we love to have a photo of that fleet?
 
ED, I will check with my cousin, but I doubt there are any surviving pics, as 40+ yrs have passed, and Rodger hasn't lived in EP for a looong time. I am just amazed that he can recall all this, as he is now 68, same as me. I am really surprised tha the 2 Dixies had the hot-rod engines in them, esp. the very rare f.i. in the Olds. Any of you know of other Pro Cars with original optional high-performance specs, such as maybe Cads with the dual 4bbl Eldo setup? A very small, interesting world it is, eh?
 
Aaron Greene's Pontiac has a Tri-Power setup:

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A breif history lesson on the Dixie Coach Company.

To answer your question Jim, the Dixie Coach Company was based in Lebanon Tennessee and built coaches from 1956 till about 1960. From 1956-1958 they built combinations and ambulances on Pontiac and Oldsmobile’s and from 1956 till 1960 and maybe into 1961 the built on Pontiac’s that they stretched and built bodies on in house. They even built one landau model endloader and two flowercars during this time as well. I even have an ad from a 1959 Southern Funeral Director funeral trade journal stating that they had some 1959 SWB Dixie Pontiacs ready for delivery as well. Although its unknown exactly how many Dixie’s were built during this time frame but I'd have to guess about 15 or so per year. The cars were bought from the local Pontiac dealer, Hankins & Smith and the Oldsmobile’s were bought from the local Olds dealer Keats-McDowell all of Lebanon. I've heard of Dixies going all over the southeast as well as up to Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and now Texas. Dixie was started in 1956 in a small shop on the northside of Lebanon by three gentlemen locally, one being a distributor for Miller-Meteor. In 1958 Dixie was bought out by the Bland Casket Company who was also a Miller-Meteor dealer at the time where a new shop and dealership was constructed in the middle part of town across from the casket plant. After Dixie Coach stopped bulding coaches in about 1960 (possibly 1961) they remained a dealer for Miller-Meteor and Cotner/Bevington till about 1970 when Cleo Anderson of Nashville who operated Anderson M-M Sales (now Ambulance & Funeral Coach Sales an S&S and Superior dealer) bought out the dealership and assets of Dixie from Bland's and bought out Perry Lanius who was a distributor for Miller-Meteor and Dixie Coach co-founder as well. I found it very interesting and helpful about your info on the fuel injected Old's and Tri-Power Pontiac that was ran in Texas as I had no idea what the cars had in them as power plants when they were built by Dixie as I figured that they just bought what they needed as the built the cars. You can also look back at The Professional Car issue #111 quarter #1 2004 for photos and a full story on Dixie. Hope this info sheds some light for you about the Dixie Coach Company!

Jeremy D. Ledford, Dixie Coach Company Historian and Authority!
 
Jeremy, many thanks for all this info! I wish I had brought this subject up in Piqua. How does one get old copies of TPC? I gave Ron a big stack of them, but don't recall ever reading about Dixie. BTW, what happens if a Dixie coach meets a Yankee conversion???
 
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