Dorsey Murdock Dixon was an American old-time and country music songwriter and musician.
17 Facts About Dorsey Dixon
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Dorsey Dixon was a millworker who spent much of his life working in textile mills in North and South Carolina.
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Dorsey Dixon was born on October 14,1897, in Darlington, South Carolina.
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Dorsey Dixon was one of seven children, all of whom, together with their father, worked at the local textile mill, Darlington Cotton Manufacturing Company.
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Dorsey Dixon left school at the age of twelve to start working at the mill; his younger brother Howard started at the age of ten, and their sister Nancy began working there as a spinner at the age of eight.
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Dorsey Dixon found work for a while at a mill in Lancaster, South Carolina, before moving to East Rockingham, North Carolina, in 1927 to work at the Aleo Mill.
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In 1929 Dorsey Dixon tried his hand at composition, writing a poem about a school house fire.
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When Howard and his mother noted that the words could be sung to a popular hymn at the time, "Life's Railway to Heaven", Dorsey Dixon began devoting his spare time to composing.
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Dorsey Dixon's writing often drew on first-hand experiences, particularly the working conditions in the mills.
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Dixon and his brother started performing as a duo at local functions around Rockingham, with Dorsey playing guitar and Howard playing fiddle.
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Howard switched from fiddle to Hawaiian guitar and Dorsey Dixon played his guitar with a "unique finger-picking style".
12.
Dorsey Dixon was granted ownership of "Wreck on the Highway", a third of the existing $5,000 royalties, and an "undisclosed percentage" of future royalties.
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Dorsey Dixon later adopted Acuff's title, and "Wreck on the Highway" became his "best-known and arguably his greatest composition".
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Interest in Dorsey Dixon's music was revived in the late 1950s by students of hillbilly and work song.
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The title track was a new composition by Dorsey Dixon that was about the Southern textile industry's "shameful abuse and exploitation" of child labor in the early 20th century.
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Later Dorsey Dixon was asked to have his music recorded for the Archive of American Folk Song at the US Library of Congress.
17.
Dorsey Dixon relocated to Plant City, Florida, to live with his son, the Reverend Dorsey Dixon, Jr.