Dixie Cram was born Olive Mary Stratford on August 15, 1919, at Kalangadoo to Mary Stratford (nee Chuck) and Basil Lindsay Stratford.
She is the last remaining of her five brothers, William, Reg, Alex, Albert and Martin, and three sisters, Phyllis, Eileen and Jean.
Dixie grew up in Tarpeena with her family and many cousins.
Dixie is the granddaughter of James Chuck and Martha McQuade.
She is very proud of her Chinese heritage and spent much of her youth in the company of her close relatives who were also descended from the old Chinaman.
She speaks fondly and often of her grandfather James Chuck (Chun Cheok) a native of China who ran a very successful market garden on the outskirts of Tarpeena.
Her grandfather was born in the Canton region of China and made his way to the Victorian goldfields where he was reported to have found gold and squandered his win on opium and gambling.
After spending some time in Harrow working as a cook on a station, James made his way to Glencoe Station where he met and married Martha Mary McQuade, daughter of an Irish convict and a Scottish woman.
It was considered very unusual for such an association and family lore says that the marriage occurred because Martha’s hand was won as the result of a gambling debt between her father and her husband-to-be.
The Chuck family and their offspring lived in close proximity in the Tarpeena and Kalangadoo area.
Dixie experienced great poverty throughout her childhood, having to get out of bed early in the mornings to go and milk the cows.
She had no shoes and had to wade through the mud in freezing conditions.
Dixie remembers having to do this whilst her brothers remained in bed until their breakfast was served.
In line with Chinese tradition and the morays of the day, Dixie recalls that her mother did not want her as only boys were considered important and that as the eldest girl she had to help with housework and jobs around the home.
Despite this, Dixie was a tomboy and used to hang around with her brothers and male cousins. She spent a lot of time with her grandparents and after the death of her grandfather she lived with Granny for a time. Dixie recalls that her Chinese grandfather was a “lovely old man”.
Dixie attended a few years of primary school at Tarpeena and when she left went to Pleasant Park Station as a housemaid.
She was always the one who looked after family and went to Glencoe to look after a sick relative and her children when the relative was widowed.
The Cram family also lived at Glencoe and it is assumed that this is where they met.
Dixie married Harold Thomas Cram in Mount Gambier when they were both 21 and they had five children, Lynton, Warwick, Leonie, Beverley and Janice.
Harold worked for the railways initially in Wolseley and following his employment they lived in Peterborough and Mannahill near Broken Hill.
Unfortunately Harold suffered from ill health and spent many years in hospital.
He died in 1960 and Dixie returned to her home town of Tarpeena where she worked in the kitchen at the local pub bringing up five children on her own.
Sadly a few years later in 1966, her youngest son Warwick was killed in an accident.
Her other children all married and she has grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Dixie worked at the pub until she was 80.
She held her driver’s licence until she was 96 years old and still travelled from Mount Gambier where she was then living to run messages for the pub.
She loved pub life and to this day she thoroughly enjoys returning to the Pines Hotel in Tarpeena for a cold beer where she still has many friends and relations.
Luckily for Dixie, her son Lynton runs the Pines Hotel and has been doing so for many years.
There is nothing Dixie likes better than telling a good yarn with the locals and she professes to have been a good listener. Dixie has been a good listener over the years and enjoys nothing more than regaling stories from yesteryear.
She remained at home in her unit in Mount Gambier until she was 99. She now lives at Boandik Lodge, Lake Terrace, Mount Gambier and still enjoys outings, conversation, entertaining everyone with tales of her escapades as a young feisty woman and selectively sharing the family secrets.
