Dixie A. Hood

Dixie Allen Hood was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on August 26, 1933. During these Depression years, the Hood family moved to the East Coast. When Dixie was a senior in high school the family moved to California. It was Dixie’s senior year and so went to live with her aunt and uncle in Petaluma on their dairy ranch while the family was settling down in Southern California.
In 1951, Dixie met her future husband, Robert (Bob) Mertle, at Santa Rosa Junior College. She was Student Body Vice President and he was President.
The family story is that Bob surprised everybody at a meeting when he "made a motion for Robert Mertle to marry Dixie Hood and she seconded it." Everybody voted in favor!
Dixie and Bob raised two daughters and a son- Kerry, Don, and Piper. Dixie was active as a Girl Scout leader and started the first summer recreation program and first Girl Scout Troop in Marin City a minority neighborhood. Dixie and Bob were active in Democratic Party politics, civil rights, and the peace movements. A large lighted peace symbol was displayed on their home, overlooking Highway 101 across from the Marin Civic Center for many years, during the Vietnam War.
Dixie loved the arts and encouraged her children in music, dance, and visual arts. She was an avid amateur photographer and filmmaker and a true film buff. She loved travel and adventure, and enjoyed skiing, hiking, backpacking and horseback riding. Family trips included skiing in Yosemite, a road trip to the New York World’s Fair, and rafting on the Colorado River.
Dixie completed a BA and an MA in Psychology at Francisco State University. She then taught psychology at the College of Marin.
Divorced, she moved to Juneau, Alaska in 1976 and worked for the University of Alaska Southeast, Southeast Regional Resource Center (SERRC) and the City and Borough of Juneau. She returned to California for a couple of years to complete her MA in Counseling from Sonoma State University in 1985. She returned to Juneau, which had become her beloved home and she worked there as a licensed marriage and family therapist for 30 years.
In Juneau, Dixie continued to be active and involved in the community, supporting human rights groups such as PFLAG and the ACLU. She ran for City Council and volunteered for many years on the Parks and Recreation committee. She was an active member of the Juneau Unitarians.
In 2016 she retired and moved to Bellingham, WA to be close to her daughter, Piper. She passed away on November 12, 2021.
She was preceded in death by her former husband, Robert Mertle. She was survived by brother Ben Hood (Mary Lou) of Albuquerque, NM (who has since died, less than a month after his big sister) and sister Kristi Hood of Visalia, CA; daughter Kerry Mertle (Michael Peterson) of Santa Rosa, CA; son Don Mertle of San Francisco, CA; daughter Piper Mertle and grandson Dixon Livingston of Bellingham, WA; grandson Jason Burkhart (Tara) of Hayward, CA; great-granddaughters Sierra Burkhart of San Diego, CA and Franchesca Burkhart of Oakland, CA; grandchildren Morgan Peterson (Heather), Alison Peterson and John Peterson from Ft. Bragg, CA; granddaughter Ember Livingston-Emmons (Jon) and grandson Michael Livingston of Sitka, AK; granddaughter Ceanne Livingston of Fort Jones, CA; great-grandsons Dylan Peterson, Skyler Peterson and Zion Johnson of Washington state.