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Note: Dixon, Currie (1879--1921)
HOUSE, 54th-56th General Assemblies, 1905-1911; representing Haywood County; Democrat. Known during his legislative years as "Mister Prohibition," Currie Dixon was born December 22, 1879, in Haywood County, exact place not stated; son of Robert and Louvenia (McGee) Dixon. Attended Ognvie Boys' Training School; received his LL. B. degree, year not stated, from Cumherland University, Lebanon, Wilson County. Married May 7, 1911, at the home of a friend in Memphis, Shelby County, to Mattie Brewer, daughter of James A. and Josephine (Edwards) Brewer; children: James B. and Robert, Established law partnership with John T. Gray c.1900; member of Baptist Church; Knights of Pythias, In the legislature, Representative Dixon was a "regular" leader in the fight for prohibition; his reputation as "Mister Prohibition" was known throughout Tennessee in connection with the legislative battles of 1907, 1909, and 1911. The issue of prohibition was bitterly debated in state politics, bringing a split in the Democratic party between "wets" and "drys" (thus enabling the Republicans to return a can- didate for governor in 1910 and 1912). In the legislative session of 1909, when the state-wide prohibition law was passed, he was one of the "regular leaders of the [Governor Malcolm Rice] Patterson wing, along with Parks Worley, Dave Puryear, Hoyte Stewart, and Frank Garden, who waged a warm fight against the Independent - Republican coalition." He was the Democratic Caucus nominee for Speaker of the House in 1909 against M. Hillsman Taylor of Tren- ton, who won the speaker's election. The final victory of the "drys" was to no small extent attributable to the killing of their leader, Senator Edward Ward Carmack, in a street fight with two of the leaders of the "wet" forces. He retired from politics in 1911, after be- ing defeated for attorney-general of the 13th judicial district by Thomas Clark Rye (who would serve as governor, 1915-1919). He practiced law until shortly before his death, enjoying a "large criminal practice." Died December 20, 1921; buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Brownsville, Haywood County.
Sources: Interview of Mrs. Currie Dixon by Lelia F. ~ Summers, Browning June 20, 1974; Tennessee Public Act 4 1~~ 1907, 190~ 1911; "Tennessee History in Brief," Tennessee Historical Markers, xiii, 33, 44.
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