Part 2: They Met at Tuskegee

(Click Pictures to Enlarge Each) 

    Aunt Lois’ parents, Gardner Lewis Dixon and Edessa Meek met on the campus of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.

    Both were students of the great scientist, Dr. George Washington Carver.  The school was founded by Booker T. Washington on July 4, 1881 and became Tuskegee University in 1985.

 Aunt Lois’ son-in-law,  Dr. Anthony Daniels, “Tony” as he is lovingly called, found Edessa and Gardner in the 1920 Tuskegee Yearbook. Edessa was listed as a commencement speaker and Gardner played in the senior class orchestra and on the varsity football team.

    In their Senior Class Census, which published their ambitions, Gardner wrote, “To be a Violinist” and Edessa, “To Go to Africa,” which she would fulfill a few years later…more about that in a moment.

   The couple graduated in 1920: Gardner with a degree in Carpentry and Edessa with a degree in Teacher Training in Home Economics.

 Less than a year after graduation, they were married on March 27, 1921, in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

   A few months later, they would take an overseas trip that would forever change the course of their lives and firmly establish their faith as Seventh-day Adventists.