Merry "Bix" Echo Bixler-Metcalf

Merry Echo Bixler-Metcalf

Memorial services for Merry Echo Bixler-Metcalf will be April 24, 2010 in Harrison, Neb. More details will follow as time gets near.

Merry Echo passed away peacefully Dec. 28, 2009 at her home in the Harrison House Hotel. Her daughter Meredith Bixler and caretaker Elaine Doherty were present at the time. She was born in Algona, Iowa, Feb. 20, 1919.

She lived her early years in Missouri Valley, Iowa, with her parents Walter and Mable Gillette, sisters and brother. She attended Dana College in Blair, where she met her first husband James Monroe Bixler. They were married in 1940. To this marriage were born two children, a daughter Meredith in 1942 and a son Jim in 1947.

They spent their early years after WWII at their ranch south of Harrison. In 1948 they moved into Harrison for their children to attend school. Merry Echo attended beauty school in Scottsbluff and owned and operated a beauty shop on her back porch of their little house for many years. Many women in Harrison will remember her for this and the good times spent at Merry Echo's Beauty Shop.

While living in Harrison, the Bixlers and Bill and Dorothy Powell built and operated the Sage Motel and Village Barn Cafe. Later they bought and operated the Ranger Hotel, Silver Spur Cafe and Oasis Bar in Lusk, Wyo, for several years.

In the 1950s, Merry, "Bix" and the children spent every other year in Lincoln while Bix represented the 41st District in the Unicameral Legislature. Merry Echo enjoyed her time in Lincoln working at the State Capitol in the Department of Roads and Irrigation.

Merry Echo met and married her second husband Paul Metcalf in 1972 while working in New York with her daughter Meredith. She and Paul enjoyed several years of retirement in Lake Havasu, AZ, until Paul's death in 1994, at which time she moved again to live with her daughter Meredith and son-in-law Ray, where she remained until the time of her death.

She is survived by daughter Meredith and her husband Ray Nelson of Harrison; son Judge Jim Bixler and wife Dani of Las Vegas; granddaughter Bryce; grandson Milt, great granddaughters Brooke and Lauren; sisters Eleanor Harvey, Queen Barbour and sisters-in-law Jean Gillette, Virginia Cassells and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Walter and Mabel Gillette, first husband Monroe Bixler, second husband Paul Metcalf and sisters Bess Griffiths, Edith Guhl and brother Bud Gillette.

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