On April 10th, Dixie Carter died at the age of 70 from cancer related complications. She was best known for playing Julia Sugarbaker on the TV show, Designing Women. Her character was a charming but opinionated Southern woman in Atlanta.
I had the opportunity to meet her and her husband, Hal Halbrook, when they stayed at The Brown Hotel in Louisville during 1996. The tradition of the Kentucky Derby was to play the song “My Old Kentucky Home” with the crowd singing the lyrics. For that one year, tradition was broken as Carter was invited to sing the song.
Part of my job at the hotel was to take care of our celebrity guests. I interacted with a wide variety of stars and celebrities. Nobody was more gracious, kind and charming than Ms. Carter. I recall that she would always address me in the beautiful Southern drawl as “Mr. Gantz.”
Her one request of me was to see if I could obtain a video copy of her singing from the TV network people also staying with us at the hotel. I quickly located my contact with the network. In a few hours he returned to me with the video of the song. I took the video and knocked on her door. Hal Holbrook answered. When he saw what I had, he invited me in to give it to her. Both of them were so kind and thankful.
Our world could certainly stand a dose of the kind of charm she demonstrated that week and through her lifetime.
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There’s a pretty good slideshow taken from her memorial service on the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s website. All of the “Designing Women” are pictured.
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