Dixie McDonald Willingham was a country girl from Middle Tennessee, as southern as her first name (it was also her grandmother's).

She and her three roommates at the University of Tennessee arrived together in Atlanta in 1965 to become teachers, three of them, including Mrs. Willingham, landing jobs at Grant Park Elementary School. All Democrats, they all married and raised families whose conservative politics couldn't have been more different than their own.

Family photo (ENLARGE)

Dixie Willingham was a teacher then raised two children.

"We often said, 'How is it we're all of the same mind-set on politics when the people we married and our children have gone the other way?' " said Linda Butts, a former roommate who, like the other "roomies," remained a lifelong friend of Mrs. Willingham.

Added Mrs. Willingham's husband of 40 years, Randolph Claiborne Willingham: "I'm basically a conservative, and she was basically a liberal. It was a true example of opposites attracting."

Mrs. Willingham, 64, of Marietta, died Monday of pneumonia at WellStar Kennestone Hospital after a several-year battle with breast cancer, and a decades-long struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Her fight with both diseases is viewed by family and friends as testimony to her most profound traits: determination, selflessness, grace under fire and a refusal to complain no matter how debilitating her health.

Mrs. Willingham was born in Evansville, Ind., while her father worked in the shipyards there during World War II. But she grew up in Carthage, Tenn., where her family's roots go back a century. During summers she played with Al Gore, her cousin's closest friend, when he returned from school in Washington, where his father was a U.S. senator.

She remained a staunch supporter of Mr. Gore's, hosting a dinner for him when he was running for vice president.

She graduated from Tennessee in 1965 and headed to Atlanta with her roommates. She taught third grade, many of her students from Cabbagetown. She married and moved to Marietta, teaching two more years at Hickory Hills Elementary, before she left teaching to raise her two children.

She was diagnosed with Parkinson's in her 40s, but didn't tell friends until almost three years later. She didn't let it stop her from doing the things she loved: hosting dinner parties, traveling, shopping, watching Tennessee Volunteers football.

"She'd wear those bright orange Tennessee shirts," said her daughter, Julia Willingham Townsend of Austin, Texas. "She was so beautiful and elegant, so ladylike and Southern, and her favorite show was 'The Sopranos.' She wasn't uptight. She wasn't one-dimensional."

While she never returned to teaching, Mrs. Willingham always looked for ways to help others. In 1998, she and her husband took in a family of Kosovo refugees through St. James Episcopal Church, where Mrs. Willingham was a member.

"She wished she could do more," said Mrs. Butts. "She wanted to save everybody, help everybody, send everybody to college."

Besides her husband and daughter, Mrs. Willingham is survived by her mother, Kathleen Willey McDonald of Marietta; and a son, Randolph Claiborne Willingham Jr. of Acworth.

Funeral services will be held today at 2 p.m. at St. James Episcopal Church, 161 Church St., Marietta.