Uncrowned Community Builders

Mrs. Dixon was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Lett. J. Benjamin Lett and Minerva Webber were married in Muskogee, Oklahoma Territory on June 2, 1897. The couple subsequently moved to Nowata, Oklahoma Territory where their children, Eddie, Ivarren, Elmore and Estella were born.

Estella, who in later life was known professionally as Madame E. Lett Dixon was born in 1906 in Nowata, OK before Oklahoma entered statehood. She was a graduate of Langston, University in Langston, Oklahoma and Kansa State Teachers College.

In 1956 Mr. & Mrs. Lett celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary. Their daughter was among those celebrating her parents' anniversary by providing a musical selection at a special program in their honor. A newspaper article in the Kansas City Plaindealer reported that Mr. & Mrs. Lett were residents of Nowata, Oklahoma Indian Territory when they married. Mrs. Dixon and her husband, a minister moved frequently and prior to this event lived in Buffalo. At this time Mrs. Dixon and her husband, Rev. Richard H. Dixon were residents of Schenectady, New York.

An article in the Plaindealer on August 23, 1940 reported that Mrs. Dixon had opened a "grand studio of music" in Kansas City, Missouri. It was noted that she was the first black woman to appear in Concert hall in Emporia, Kansas at Kansas State Teachers College. She was also a member of the national Association of Negro Musicians, State Musical directors of Indiana and Indiana State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. She was also the Minister of Music at her husband's church and a teacher of voice piano and violin at the church.

She appeared at Carnegie Hall three times. She also worked with W.C. Handy.

In each community that Mrs. Lett and her husband lived, she opened a studio where she taught voice, piano and violin. While in Buffalo she also was the musical director for the Empire State Baptist Convention as well as the minister of music at her husband's church. Rev. Dixon was the pastor of Second Temple Baptist Church while in Buffalo.

Mrs. Dixon died in Alameda, California and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery.