George Dixon
The legendary Lancer Steakhouse in Cleveland, Ohio during its heyday
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By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief. Coleman is a former public school biology teacher and a seasoned Black journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. She is an experienced political and investigative reporter.
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio-Funeral services have been announced for beloved Cleveland restaurateur George Dixon lll, the owner and operator of the now defunct and legendary Lancer Steakhouse in Cleveland and a former Cleveland School Board member and former president of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority Board of Trustees, a post he held for 25 years.
Dixon, 68, struggled with obesity and associated and other illnesses for years. He lost that battle on Sat., July 3 and died in the early morning hours.
Viewing is Tues., July 13 from 12 pm- 6 pm at E.F. Boyd & Son Funeral Home, 2165 East 89th Street in Cleveland.
The wake is Wed., July 14 at 10 am at Pentecostal Church of Christ at 10515 Chester Avenue in Cleveland and it will be followed by a 10:30 am funeral, also at the church.
“The RTA family is taking a moment to wish peace, comfort, and prayers to the family of George Dixon,” Greater Cleveland RTA CEO and General Manager India Birdsong said in a statement.
Dixon attended Cleveland's public schools, graduating from East Tech High School in 1971. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree at the Ohio State University.
He married the love of his life, the former Sandra Robinson, in 1985 with an elaborate wedding and reception. To this union was born two sons, George IV, and Brandon.
Preceding him in death were his parents and siblings.
In addition to his wife and two sons, Dixon is survived by a granddaughter, Noella Dixon, and a host of nieces, nephews, in-laws, cousins, and other family members.
Dixon was a member Central Christian Church as well as the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.
A well-liked Democrat, he was a colorful figure in Cleveland politics and in the business community for several decades. He leaves a legacy of leadership and entrepreneurship in the majority Black major American city, a Democratic stronghold.
Formerly located near the intersection of East 79th Street and Carnegie Avenue on Cleveland's largely Black east side, the Lancer Steakhouse that Dixon and and operated for decades was a fixture in Cleveland too. In its heyday, the city's oldest Black-owned seafood and soul food restaurant was a place to go for delicious food, fair prices, and conversation, and was a crossroads tavern. It was a comfortable restaurant that attracted African Americans from myriad walks of life, including politicians and business owners, numbers runners and Civil Rights leaders like the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and the late Dick Gregory.
Anybody that is or was somebody in Cleveland's Black community and prominent Blacks visiting the city like U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of California made their way to Lancer's sometime or another, and Whites of consequence patronized the popular establishment too, including Bill Clinton when he was campaigning in Cleveland for president.
Activists and poor people felt welcome their also and could sit back and relax with a decent piece of tasty fried catfish or two pieces of perch, and fries, coleslaw and a slice of bread, all for the price of $6, and even during the recession.
To the shock of the community and the dismay of the media and influential Black leaders and political insiders across racial and ethnic lines, Lancer's literally burned down in 2009, a year after hosting a city-wide election-night celebration of the election in 2008 of then president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president. And while Dixon later found a new location and new name for Lancer's near downtown Cleveland, a restaurant and bar dubbed Lancer-21 that was partly owned by Ted Ginn Sr., it was short-lived and, in spite of its good food and warm service, closed following his declining illness.
Dixon’s service with RTA spanned the administrations of the last three Cleveland mayors, Michael White, Jane Campbell and current mayor Frank Jackson, leading the transit authority through numerous expansions, including the $200 million Euclid Avenue corridor project and the HealthLine.
In addition to his longtime tenure as an RTA board president, Dixon was a member of the first appointed Cleveland School Board, which came about under a state law that took effect in 1998 after the Cleveland schools and the state of Ohio were released from the longstanding schools desegregation court order. The law eliminated the elected school board and handed the city's schools and the authority to appoint school board members to the city mayor, then White, who had lobbied the Republican-dominated state legislature to pass legislation that gave control of the schools to the mayor, an arrangement later sanctioned by Cleveland voters via the approval of a ballot referendum.
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