Dixie Arizona Cross

Dixie Bingham Cross was born June 2, 1931, in Franklin, North Carolina, to Thad Bingham and Dorothy Sanders Bingham. She passed away peacefully at home in Walla Walla on Saturday, July 23, 2022.

She lived in Franklin, North Carolina, until the family moved west to Washington state when she was six. The births of her brothers Gary Bingham, Warren Bingham, and Don Bingham followed after the family relocated to the Skagit Valley area of Washington.

Dixie Cross married Benjamin Cross on June 5, 1948, and had three children, Stephen Cross, Vicki Cross Johnson, and Glenn Cross.

Dixie had a strong faith and spent decades playing the piano, teaching classes, and singing in the church choir.

She had seven grandchildren: Tyson Cross, Steve Cross, Katie Higuchi, Christa Jensen, Cassie English, Kayla Cross, and Levi Cross. She also had twelve great-grandchildren: Jacqui Cross, Lyrik Harrison, Dylon Cross, Kynlee Cross, Emelia Cross, Jeremy Cross, Isaac Cross, Tori Higuchi, Benjamin Higuchi, Cameron Jensen, Christian Jensen, and Carter English.

Dixie graduated from Whitman College with a degree in English Literature and earned a Master’s Degree from Walla Walla University. She taught English Composition and Literature at Walla Walla Community College for 24 years.

Throughout their decades together, Ben and Dixie traveled the world. They spent a year teaching in England on a Fulbright Exchange, taught in Nairobi, Kenya, and studied in Japan and Hawaii. Their favorite place to travel, though, was to see family.

Dixie sang beautifully in a trio on a weekly radio show in the 1940s. She spoke beautifully and loved beautifully. Her husband Ben and her family were her life. Because of her kind heart and generosity, she gave much love to the world, to her students, to her friends, and to her family. That love was her greatest gift. As her husband Ben lay in hospice three years ago, he looked at Dixie and said, “Be Strong.” And so she was.

She lived through the poverty of the Great Depression, WWII, and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s a few years before Ben passed. It was her daily struggle. But she never complained; she just kept smiling. A line in a poem she wrote read, “Wherever you are, declare it the center of your universe.” And she will always remain the center of ours. We will feel her love in the breezes of the trees and see her beauty in the changing colors of the Light.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease through the Herring Groseclose Funeral Home, 315 W. Alder St., Walla Walla, WA 99362. Guests may sign the guest book at www.herringgroseclose.com.