Interviewer: Kelly McLain

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I first learned about the Dickey family from KM406a, KM406b, and KM406c. I had met with Mrs. Ruby Dickey’s daughter a couple days earlier and she facilitated setting up the meeting date and time with her mother. We met at her home. The house is situated so that the funeral parlor and chapel sit in the front of the house which is closed off from the family living area. Her husband was the owner of Dickey Brothers Funeral Home. Mrs. Dickey worked as a cosmetologist for the funeral home but never really cared for it. Her primary occupation was her role as a mother of four children. She also taught Sunday school at her church for 32 years.

Mrs. Dickey grew up in Heidelberg, Mississippi, the daughter of a sharecropper. She graduated from the twelfth grade at Jasper County Training School. She is a member of Heroines of Jericho. Mrs. Dickey met her husband in Jackson, Mississippi while attending a Masons meeting. She moved to Biloxi, Mississippi after her wedding in 1962. She recalls her husband’s involvement in the wade-in protests at the beach during the Civil Rights movement. She is a determined advocate of respect for self and respect for others. Also, when Mrs. Dickey was younger she enjoyed playing basketball and today is very active in water aerobics and Zumba.