FAREWELL TO DIXIE

Over the past few weeks, we have lost some dynamic talents in the world of television. Peter Graves. Robert Culp, just to name two. However, I have to admit to being a little surprised to be greeted Sunday morning with the obituary for Dixie Carter, who passed away Saturday due to complications with cancer at the age of 70.

As a child, I remember passing through her hometown of McLemoresville on our way to see relatives in West Tennessee, and asking my parents and grandmother "Who is Dixie Carter," as we would pass by the city limit sign that proudly proclaimed the town as her home. As the 80s passed, I would soon find out.

Her first role that I remember was on CBS's short-lived 1982-83 sitcom Filthy Rich. A comedic send-up of Dallas, it featured Carter and Delta Burke as feuding members of the same family. The show didn't last, unfortunately, but proved to set her up a few years later for a role on the Harry Thomason & Linda Bloodworth-Thomason sitcom Designing Women. On the show, she portrayed Julia Sugarbaker, a Southern belle who was definitely no shrinking violet. She was a brass tack, as the old saying goes, and the chemistry between her and Burke that was already in place was joined by that of Jean Smart and Annie Potts, and the show had a long run. The producers, who were Arkansas natives, were one of the first to make a TV show set in the south that portrayed the locals as having some sense. That's not a knock on the rural sitcoms of the 60s such as The Beverly Hillbillies, but I would put Julia Sugarbaker and company up against the likes of Murphy Brown anyday. The show also benefitted from the addition of her husband, Hal Holbrook, to the cast. The man defines the word genius, and the chemistry these two had together was in evidence, as well.

After the show went off the air in 1993, she continued to act, starring in many series, including the underrated 1999-2002 series Family Law. All along, that southern charm was there. Next to Designing Women, my favorite Carter role came as herself...in a commercial, as strange as that might sound. A few years back, she starred in a series of commercials for AT&T. Holbrook might have been in one of them, but what I remember is the one she did with her father. I believe they filmed it in McLemoresville, where he had owned a grocery store for many years. It wasn't particularly emotional in any way, but it was refreshing to see that in spite of Hollywood success, some people never changed.

Tennessee has been fortunate to have had some great representation in the world of show business. Perhaps Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley are the two best-known people on that list.....but there are others that have represented the Volunteer State with class...and Dixie Carter was one of them.