OBITUARIES: AVONDALE ESTATES: Julia Hix, 41, always open for new adventures

Julia “Julie” Hix didn’t let anything stand in her way when she wanted to try something new —- whether it was tap-dancing, raising goats or traveling to Europe alone.

Last year, while she was ill with cancer, she bought a cheap, last-minute flight to Italy and took a solo trip around that country.

“She had always wanted to go, and it was important to her. She didn’t know if she had six months, and she didn’t know how long she would be feeling good,” said her sister Gwen Hix of Vinings.

Julie Hix, 41, of Avondale Estates, died Sunday of cancer at Hospice Atlanta.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at All Souls Fellowship Church in Decatur. A.S. Turner & Sons is in charge of arrangements.

Ms. Hix was born in Richmond, and moved to Norcross with her parents when she was in high school. She earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Georgia, where she studied cinema, journalism and other subjects.

After college, Ms. Hix worked for advertising agencies in Tampa, San Francisco and Wilmington, N.C., before returning to Atlanta, where she was a senior print production manager for the advertising agency BBDO.

Wherever she lived, she gathered lots of friends, her sister said.

“She was like a magnet. People were drawn to her,” she said.

“She was accepting of people when others maybe weren’t so accepting, and she had a unique ability to help people accept and understand each other.”

Ms. Hix was adventurous and always open to new people and ideas, said her friend Emily Mather of Atlanta.

“She was a friend you could call up and say, ‘Do you want to do this?’ and there would be a ‘yes,’ ” said Ms. Mather.

Earlier this year, the two friends started learning about raising goats and had discussed owning a goat farm.

Ms. Hix —- always interested in healthy eating and organic food —- wanted to drink more goat’s milk and felt there was an untapped market for it in Georgia, her sister said.

Ms. Hix had become intrigued by “The Maker’s Diet,” a book about healthy eating that claims to get its inspiration from the Bible, her sister said.

As an adult, Ms. Hix took up playing drums, and she went to a tap-dancing class, both for fun and for exercise, her sister said.

On Ms. Hix’s trip to Italy, she wrote to her sister that she was inspired by the great architecture and art in Rome, Florence and Siena, but also that traveling made her appreciate her life at home.

She was divorced and lived by herself, but lavished affection on her two dogs, Niles and Lulu.

After her cancer returned this year and she had to use a wheelchair, many friends pitched in to bring Ms. Hix meals and take care of her house and dogs, her sister said.

“An ex-boyfriend came to walk her dogs two times a day. I think that says a lot about who she was,” her sister said.

Survivors include her parents, Harwood and Mildred Hix, both of Duluth; and another sister, Susie Hix Corby of Roswell.