She had a name straight out of the Old South, with a grand antebellum home and a genteel nature to match. For more than 50 years, she was known as a preservationist and visionary, a volunteer and a philanthropist, a Columbus icon, with none of the ego that often accompanies that status.
Dixie Anne Hollis Butler Casteel, far better known as “Dixie Butler,” died Wednesday at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle after months of declining health. She was 84.
“Who was she to Columbus?” said her friend, Emma Richardson. “The Latin phrase is ‘ne plus ultra,’ the highest point of excellence.”
“What I think about is that she always made the best of whatever she had,” said Kathy Novotny, who bought Butler’s grand home, Temple Heights, in 2016. “She just had this great attitude.”
“She touched so many lives,” said Columbus Cultural Heritage Foundation CEO Nancy Carpenter. “Whether it was in education or music or historic preservation, she made a difference.”
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Dixie moved to Columbus and into Temple Heights with her husband Carl in 1968.
The Butlers were educators, with the bank account to prove it. Meanwhile, Temple Heights was near ruin – Realtors suggested the buyer would do better demolishing the house, given what it would take to restore it to its former glory.
In short, the Butlers had no business buying the property.
“Absolutely not,” Novotny said. “What they were able to do is just amazing, given their circumstances. They did everything they could possibly do and didn’t worry about what they couldn’t do.”
For the rest of their married life, Temple Heights was “Tara” to the Butlers, who loved to entertain in the home, built in 1837. The home was part of the Columbus Pilgrimage for 46 consecutive years until its sale.
Novotny and her husband, Mark, bought the home after it caught their eye while they were driving around the city.
“We called Dixie and met with her the next day,” Novotny said. “She said to us, ‘This home wraps its arm around you.’ She was right. She also told us, ‘Don’t buy this house if you don’t consider yourself a caretaker. We are only here for a short while. This house has been here for almost 200 years.’”
For the rest of their married life, Temple Heights was “Tara” to the Butlers, who loved to entertain in the 1837 home. The house was part of the Columbus Pilgrimage for 46 consecutive years until its sale.
Learning experiences
Richardson said the Butlers loved opening their home during Pilgrimage.
“One of the things I appreciated so much was that they gave an opportunity for a lot of people, especially students, to practice public speaking and being in front of an audience by having them recite monologues about the people who lived in the home,” she said. “They were educators, and they were always looking for ways to teach.
“A lot of people know Dixie because of Temple Heights and her work with preservation,” Richardson added. “But for those who have known her the longest, she’ll be remembered as a wonderful teacher and principal.”
Dixie spent seven years as an elementary school teacher and 28 years as an elementary school principal for Columbus schools.
“She was a principal at Stokes-Beard when I met her,” Richardson said. “She cared deeply for the children. She knew the children, their siblings, their parents, where they lived. She looked out for them. As a teacher myself, she impressed me with how much she tried to make teaching less complicated for her teachers. She tried to cut down on the paper work so they could devote their time to teaching, which was what mattered most.”
On her own
When Carl Butler died from cancer in 2003, it ended a partnership that touched the community in a number of ways. Richardson said she watched to see how Dixie would respond.
“She had a resiliency about her,” Richardson said. “She was a woman of faith and had friends and was still a principal at the time, so she stayed busy. Even though she and Carl worked together on so many things, she had her independence and her own interests. A lot of people don’t know it, but she wrote and scored country music songs. My husband and I helped her copyright a collection of seven of her songs.”
The Butlers were one of the first couples Carpenter and her husband, Carol, met when the couple moved to Columbus.
“They told us about the history of our house and Columbus, and I was thrilled that they had an interest in history and preservation,” Nancy Carpenter said. “But our relationship was much deeper than that. After Carl died, I can’t tell how many Thanksgivings and Christmases and birthday celebrations she shared in our home. We thought of her as family.”
Dixie was active in the Columbus Exchange Club and was recognized with the club’s Book of Golden Deeds Award in 2013 for her work in historic preservation, arts/culture and volunteer work with groups such as Helping Hands, Loaves and Fishes and others.
She served on a wide variety of committees and boards over the years.
“She was also one of the most generous persons I’ve ever known,” Carpenter said.
In 2025, Butler donated $75,000 to the Columbus Cultural Heritage Foundation to build a statue of Tennessee Williams at the Tennessee Williams House Museum and Welcome Center.
“I remember asking her if it was OK to say that she had donated the money, because I knew she wasn’t someone that wanted to be in the spotlight,” Carpenter said. “She said yes, because she hoped her donation would inspire others to give. That says a lot about Dixie.”
Twilight
After selling Temple Heights, Dixie moved into a downtown loft apartment for a while, but spent her last years at Trinity Place Retirement Center.
Although her interest in preserving the past never waned, she didn’t spend her final years looking back. She enjoyed many friendships at Trinity Place Retirement Community, which was where she met Tommy Casteel. The couple married in October 2024.
Dixie was one of those people who squeeze all the juice out of the orange.
“She was interested in things right to the end,” Richardson said.
Several years ago, Dixie asked Richardson to write her obituary.
“I spent a lot of time with her and kept copious notes,” Richardson said, who recorded Butler’s many achievements, honors and recognitions as well as the smaller moments in her life.
“One of the things she said gave her great joy and satisfaction was playing keyboard for the people who came to eat at Loaves and Fishes when it was her church’s time to serve,” Richardson said. “She would play hymns and popular songs by ear and sometimes took requests. She loved it, she said.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
