Carmella Ulissi Dixon, 87, Penn administrative assistant; teacher

Carmella Ulissi Dixon, 87, of Moorestown, an administrative assistant in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania from 1971 to 1996, died of congestive heart failure Wednesday, Feb. 25, at the Samaritan Hospice Inpatient Center in Mount Holly.

She was president of the Lincoln-Civil War Society of Philadelphia in the 1960s and editor in those years of its monthly publication,  Official Records.

Born in Camden, Mrs. Dixon was valedictorian of her 1945 graduating class at Burlington City High School and earned a bachelor's degree in English and Spanish at Douglass College of Rutgers University in 1949.

She won a four-year tuition scholarship for her college studies.

Mrs. Dixon taught Spanish and English at Burlington City High School from 1949 to 1955, and was a training executive in the personnel department at the former Lit Bros. department store in Philadelphia until 1958.

While raising her children, son Lawrence said, Mrs. Dixon was the volunteer Sunday school supervisor at the Episcopal Church of Holy Apostles and the Mediator at 51st and Spruce Streets in West Philadelphia from 1963 to 1970, during which time she also directed the church's summer Bible school.

At Penn from 1971, she was a classics department administrative assistant. In the 1990s, she became administrative assistant in the graduate programs in ancient history and in the art and archaeology of the Mediterranean world.

From the 1960s into the 1990s, her son said, Mrs. Dixon and her husband, Jay, lectured on the life of Abraham Lincoln and conducted tours of Civil War battlefields with Penn faculty and students.

In autobiographical notes, Mrs. Dixon wrote that she was president of the Woman's Club of Moorestown in 2004-05 and its program chairman in 2006-08.

Doris Blyler, a 95-year-old friend, said she and Mrs. Dixon were members of that club for several years.

"She was very fond of the theater," Blyler said, and over the years they went often to productions in Philadelphia and South Jersey.

In addition to her son, Mrs. Dixon is survived by daughter Anne Ehly; two sisters; and a brother. Her husband died in 2001.

A memorial service was set for 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 3, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 207 W. Main St., Moorestown.

Interment is to be private.

Donations may be sent to Samaritan Healthcare & Hospice, 5 Eves Dr., Marlton, N.J. 08053.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.lewisfuneralhomemoorestown.com.