Dixie Lee Jones Osborn

Dixie was born in Turner, Montana, on June 2, 1931, and she grew up on the prairie surrounding Buffalo, Wyoming.

Her father, Harold, was a ranch hand and sheepherder, and her mother, Susan, tended to their vegetable garden and farm animals. As the oldest, Dixie was often responsible for running the household inside their cabin. She didn’t like feeding the chickens, so instead she learned to cook for the family, as well as clean, sew, and care for her younger brothers. The Jones’ children rode five miles in a horse-drawn cart to attend school, until the family moved into town when she was in 8th grade.

Dixie never lost her strong-willed stoicism and thrift as the daughter of a Wyoming rancher.

After high school, she negotiated a deal to finance her continuing education: Her father sold a cow to pay for her teaching certificate, and two years later, she paid him back with a calf after landing her first teaching job—in a one-room schoolhouse next to the Burlington Northern Railroad.

Her stint as a teacher was brief. Two days after Christmas in 1952, Dixie married Warren Lee Osborn, also of Buffalo, and they drove south for his final year studying aeronautical engineering at the University of Colorado. Next, the young couple drove west to the Pacific Ocean, where he would spend 35 years in California’s aerospace industry, and together they raised four children in Torrance and Yorba Linda.

Dixie was a gifted cook and baker who always had scones and muffins in the freezer for unexpected company. She had a knack for calming fussy babies, and she was her grandkids’ favorite babysitter. She and Warren loved taking their RV to Lake Elsinore to play cards and laugh with friends, a group they called the Good Sam Camping Club.

Leaving a church service could be a 30-minute journey with Dixie as she chatted with congregants, pew by pew. She was a longtime member of Yorba Linda United Methodist Church, where she frequently catered luncheons and wedding receptions. Every spring she could be found making fudge and peanut butter Easter eggs for a Methodist Women’s fundraiser. Each New Year’s Eve, the Osborn family celebrated with their dear neighbors, the Holidays and the Roberts. She was a member of the local quilt guild, and stitched alongside church friends to raise money for mission projects and church kitchen repairs, a patchwork of faith and practicality.

When Warren retired from the Space Division of Boeing, the couple began traveling more, with road trips back to Wyoming to help with his brother’s honey bee business; to visit family in Texas and the Pacific Northwest; and to tour Europe, from Germany to Ireland.

Dixie was preceded in death by her parents, brothers Charles “Chuck” Jones and William “Will” Jones, and husband of 62 years, Warren Osborn. She is survived by her brother David Jones (Debbie) and four children: Mark Osborn (Bob Fox), Sue Clary (Tom), Alison Lauderdale (Scott), Lee Osborn (Lisa); four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 11 a.m. at the United Methodist Church, 19002 Yorba Linda Blvd., Yorba Linda.