Stories That Live In Us

California: Stars Shooting Out of Silence (with Candace Dixon Horne) | Episode 88

• Crista Cowan | The Barefoot Genealogist • Season 2 • Episode 88

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When Candace Dixon-Horne's husband bought AncestryDNA kits in 2018, she hesitated before sending hers in. Raised by a single mom in Arkansas, Candace spent her entire life with her mom as the only blood relative she knew.

One DNA match changed everything. A simple Google search led to names she recognized, faces that looked hauntingly familiar, and a connection to California's golden age of cinema that seemed too extraordinary to be real. I talk with Candace about the moment she realized the story she'd found was actually her story, and how meeting her biological father's family for the first time revealed generations of Hollywood history, creative passion, and family connections spanning from the silent film era to today.

This episode explores how DNA can unlock not just names and dates, but entire worlds of family legacy and how discovering where you come from can transform your understanding of who you are.

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♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

Candace Dixon-Horne:

And she was going in, and she was talking about how it was going to meet her father. And the Christmas tree had real candles on it because Marlena teacher had decorated and then the Christmas gifts, of course.

Crista Cowan:

Stories that live in as is a podcast that inspires you to form deep connections with your family, past, present, and future. I'm Crista Cowan, known online as The Barefoot Genealogist. Coming down to the upcoming celebration of America's 250th birthday, you'll meet families from each state whose stories are woven into the very fabric of America. Tales of immigration, migration, courage, and community that remind us that when we tell our stories, we strengthen the bonds that connect us. So join me for season two as we discover from sea to shining sea the stories that live in us. My guest today lives in Arkansas. Her family tree takes us to Connecticut. But today's episode is about the state of California. And when you think of the state of California, I don't know about you, but I think about sunshine and palm trees and the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the beach. Lots of really great memories for me growing up in California. Well, Candace has a connection to California, and it's a connection that she didn't really fully understand or appreciate until she took an ancestry DNA test. Raised by a single mom, Candace discovered the identity of her biological father in 2019 from taking an ancestry DNA test. And since then, she has uncovered a treasure trove of stories and relationships on her biological father's side of the family. I think you're going to enjoy not just her connection to the state of California, but the story that she has to share. Enjoy my conversation with Candace Dixonhorn. Well, Candace, I'm so excited that you have joined us for this conversation today. I know a little bit about your story, but I'm excited to dig into the details. Before we dive into that, would you just toss a little bit about growing up and your and your family life growing up?

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Yes. So I was raised in Northwest Arkansas. I was born to a single mom at the time and immediately moved into the home with my grandparents, who um, full disclosure, she's actually adopted. So my entire childhood up until 2019, so well into adulthood, my only blood relative was actually my mother. And so being raised with a grandmother who was actually very into history and genealogy and all this, she'd always tell me as she was digging more and more into her genealogy. She actually went out to Utah before the internet and things to learn more. She would always apologize. She goes, Oh, I'm so sorry. Because to you, this is just paper. And so it's always interesting because to see someone that was so into the history, it made me really want to have roots. And even though I did not know mine, I I was always told the truth. Like my mom knew that my dad simply did not know I existed. So I never felt like I was not wanted. I just was unknown. And so it was very interesting to be raised with so much family tradition and so much interest in family, but not actually knowing any on either side of my genealogy beyond my mother. And even then, my cousins I was raised with, we used to choke that are we sure that I'm hers? Because we don't have everything in common. So it's quite hilarious.

Crista Cowan:

But it sounds like your grandparents um were a big part of your life growing up.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Oh, huge. We I actually lived in their home until I was three and a half. My grandmother passed away um in 2017 at the age of 105 and a half.

Crista Cowan:

Wow.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Very long history, very long life, very good attitude. She actually met one time with a friend that was a hobby writer, and she shared her entire story and had it printed out for each of us. Because again, just very into all this. She sadly tried to do ants history a couple of times, but she couldn't do the DNA well enough. Like her samples wouldn't come back right. But she wanted it. She was so into everything and all those connections and how everything went and who how small the world genuinely was.

Crista Cowan:

It really is. And that is one of the things you learn when you do family history, right? All the connections that you never considered before.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Never. Um, the things that I would have thought, I mean, my husband bought the kits in 2018 as a fluke. His dad always said he had more, always was agreeing with his mom. So he bought the little kits just to show who he matched better with. And to not leave me out, he handed me one, somewhat forgetting the Pandora's box that my genetics might possibly be. 2018, after doing the little test, somewhat hesitantly and somewhat kind of like, here we go, you know, sending it out in the universe. Um, I got back a match that said close relative. It said it was most likely like an uncle. And I was like, huh. And so I Googled the username that it was on Ancestry, and it came up with this one human being in of all places, Greenwich, Connecticut, which I had to Google where that was, being from Arkansas. I mean, I knew it existed, but I had no clue where in the map it was. I knew it was up by the little ones. Um I Googled them, it seemed interesting, and then I noticed there was an IMDDB page, which now I know is the international movie database. And so this person had been in had some acting roles. And I was like, huh. And then I noticed his mother, Osley had been in some acting roles, and then I noticed that her parents each were silent film stars with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. So I closed Google and my inner voice was like, Candice, that's not your story. You don't go 46 years of not having relatives to get that. Like, who gets that as their history? And so I sent a note first asking what the gentleman's real name must be, because the person I had Googled clearly I could not possibly be related to that. I sent them very long paragraphs, you know, explaining I was an adult and I didn't need anything, I did not have any abandonment issues, I don't need braces or college, like it is only DNA that I found because you see so many horror stories. And so I wanted to be real clear that like I'd like to know why my Isa Brown, you know, but I I'm not trying to interrupt anyone's life. And so the person sent back, oh, I have some brothers, but doubtful, highly unlikely, but you know, where were you raised? And I get back a sentence that says, Arkansas. Huh. That's a possibility for two brothers. Hang on, I'll let you know if either would like to fess up.

Crista Cowan:

Both were still living.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Both are still living.

Crista Cowan:

Okay.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

And so I'm like, you know, holding my breath with, um, would you like to reply anything else? Yeah. And so a day later he sent me a note, hey, can we call you? We think we know which brother it is. And so I was a little panic stricken that other than my mother, I've never spoken with a blood relative. Um, in the interim, since he didn't not claim that that was not his name, I realized that the story I found is my story. And I found YouTube videos of his mother, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother being interviewed about their past and their Hollywood ties. And so just seeing them on screen, hearing their voices, and realizing like they're me. Like, that is who I'm from, was a very surreal. Um, we were screenshotting, and I was doing split photos of me and them and sending it to my childhood best friend who appreciated that I had never looked like anyone. And so the whole discovery evolved into a beautiful thing. Um, my father had never married, has no other children. In fact, we joke that I check every now and then, I go, no other relatives yet. Anybody else?

Crista Cowan:

Can we can we go back just a minute, though? So this this DNA match turned out to be an uncle. Yes. And he thought he knew which brother it was. And how did that first conversation go? Or like, did he set up an opportunity to meet, or did he tell you himself?

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Well, he first told me it was um him and Susie were on the phone, and they were like, so they have a half-sister, my Aunt Lauren, who in the 70s had traveled with her husband on the way to California and set up a homestead here in Arkansas, where I'm from. Her oldest brother, my father, came to visit and liked the area and stayed a little bit until he got sick that summer and went back to Greenwich. And by the time he had gone back to Greenwich, she had moved on to California. And so he rejoined her out there. Never she nor him returned to Arkansas. And in that interim, clearly I came to exist.

Crista Cowan:

Wow.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

And so that's how I came to be. So when I met my aunt, I told her, I go, Well, I guess you're why I exist. Because random little decision in her 20s led to me existing, which is very odd to be able to trace back every little step that had to happen for you to exist.

Crista Cowan:

But yeah, when you put it, when you put it in those terms, that's a whole different perspective, isn't it?

Candace Dixon-Horne:

It's very different. And um so on the first phone call, they were like, we aren't sure if he'll want to meet you. He's a little hermit, he's super kind, but their mother um had had a stroke in 2014 or 13. And my father had actually moved in with her to care for her in her final days and years, and they were telling me that. And I thought, well, even if he doesn't want to meet, like, just thank you for that, because that's what I needed to know. Is I'm from a kind human, a good human. And they were like, okay, but we all want to meet you. Would you like to come up for Easter? Well, sure. And so I suddenly found myself with a plane ticket. This was February of 19. And all of a sudden I was going to Greenwich, Connecticut for Easter. And I arrived there. Um, they picked me up at the airport. I did stay at a hotel because well, family, it's strangers for all intents and purposes, and a little surreal. And so um, that first night we had my uncle that I matched, and Susie and I all ate at the hotel where I was staying there in Greenwich. And um, just in talking, I would move or do something, and they would catch eyes and look at each other. And I I'd catch myself in a guest note. Your mannerisms are like our mom. Oh, and you know, you always go with nature nurture, and it's confusing as to how I could have any mannerisms from someone I never laid eyes on. And it definitely answered that question of, yeah, you are from your people. Like, whether you ever encountered them or not, like they are definitely in you. But um, I look a lot like my dad. I've got pictures of his eighth grade picture and mine and your nose, your eyes, just all the things. Um, my dad did, of course, come pleasantly along with 17 other relatives.

Crista Cowan:

Oh goodness, that's a lot.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

With a lot. Um, my husband did not tell me because I told him, like, I'm gonna feel like a spectacle as it is. All of a sudden, I'm looking around, and every single person there except for my two second cousins' girlfriends, I was related to.

Crista Cowan:

Wow. And what's your what's your father's name? John. John. And so John was there, and then their mother's name is what?

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Leatrice.

Crista Cowan:

Oh, that's beautiful.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Yeah. So my great-grandmother is Leatrice Joy, the silent film star, and she was married to John Gilbert, also a silent film star, and they had my grandmother and named her also Leatrice.

Crista Cowan:

Okay, so Leatrice Gilbert, and then she married John Fountain. Oh, okay. And then they named their son John.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

They did. Okay. They liked John.

Crista Cowan:

Lots of John's and Leatrices. We'll try to keep them straight.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Yeah, sorry. That's what I'm like, you can't branch out on the names at all. My husband is also named John.

Crista Cowan:

Oh goodness, okay. And was your grandmother at that first meeting or had she already passed by then?

Candace Dixon-Horne:

In January 15.

Crista Cowan:

Oh, okay.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

They all um are quite remorseful that nobody did the tests in her because they're like the joy, and she apparently was quite open that my father was her favorite child. He had five. And so they they all were remiss that like I missed her because she definitely, and of course, my grandma grandmother I was raised with that loved genealogy, passed in 17. And so we all joke that they are somewhere up there loving that this is all and better late than never.

Crista Cowan:

Maybe orchestrating some of it.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

It's very kismic how it's all come about. Like, we definitely like their hands are all over it.

Crista Cowan:

That's amazing. And through all of this, um, is your mother still alive?

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Yes.

Crista Cowan:

And how is she reacting to your discoveries?

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Perfectly fine. Kudos to my mom, while clearly not making the best decisions in her 20s. Did she was honest? And it was um at that Easter, my dad was sitting there, we were eating, and he looked at me, and just the most genuine moment goes, you know, if I'd known you were there, we would have tried to find you. And it was so kind and so genuine. And I told him, I was like, Yes, but I always knew you tenant. So I never thought you weren't trying to find me. So I think that was a good, I do hate it because my grandmother that I was raised with, you know, was born in 1912. And my grandfather that missed um John Fountain was born in 1910. So it would have been similar mindsets as far as accomplished, same generation. And of course, their two knucklehead kids had me. But now knowing my cousins and hearing about their summer camps and going to Maine to the summer house, and that my grandfather's side was actually has been in New York City, if you ever do the Gilded Age stuff, um, since 1568.

Crista Cowan:

Like oh goodness, yeah.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

So you said fifth generation Californian for your family. My New York side is quite deep and quite proud. And it's just finding everything, it's just been like the little onion of like from that first Google and that connection to just I always wanted roots, and now I have these roots that just go so deep, just in American culture and history, that I'm more connected than I could have ever dreamt possible.

Crista Cowan:

It sounds like it. And so let's talk a little bit about this connection to California. So, your father John and his mother, you said it was Leatrice. I just love that name. It's so beautiful. Um, as you started learning about her and feeling this connection to her, you realize that first internet search that you did, the information you had found was really them and their family. Um, talk to us a little bit about their California connection.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Well, so my great-grandmother, Leatrice Joy, who was actually a Ziedler by birth, uh, was from New Orleans. And she apparently just had it in her soul that she was going to be somebody. And New Orleans was not where she would be staying. And she and her mother agreed to take her, and she went up to New York and joined a theater truly, and from there made her way to this new burgeoning place where they were making these things called movies, and she went to California and while there met her first husband, another aspiring star as Hollywood is known to still produce. Um, he had actually come from Utah. He landed in Hollywood in the 1920s, and he and Leatrice married Leatrice Joy and John Gilbert, um, both silent film stars, both just it was not the glamour that you would think it was, but they were just driven and successful to the point that not one but both got stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Um, he they had my grandmother, Leatrice Gilbert. Um she, you know, of course, you're raised in Hollywood in the 30s and 40s, with both your parents being stars. Um, John Gilbert sadly passed young. He never lived past 40. But the life he packed into that under 40 years is just astounding. Um, he went on, like my grandmother's godmothers were Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Like things that I only know from Madonna songs, you know, being in 80s. Um he lived up on Tower Road. He was making back then in the early 20s, he was an MGM star and his contracts, he made $250,000 per film.

Crista Cowan:

That's unheard of at that time.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

He was not damaged by the stock market crash because he was diversified and well invested, and just he was he replaced so Rudolph Valentino had passed, sadly. And John Gilbert became the next heartthrob of the eras. And then, of course, with his passing, that's what made room for Clark Gable.

Crista Cowan:

Okay.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Yeah, it's really spellbounding. Um, my grandmother apparently spent eight years of her life because he had passed young, and she grew up not knowing him as well as she would have wanted, and she wrote a book called Darkstar because John Gilbert's the one that was notoriously um slandered somewhat that the reason he didn't stay a star was because of his voice when it's transferred from into talkies from Sun. But there actually is evidence, and there are films with him talking. His voice was not squeaky, you know. Of course, there was no internet when she was researching and all this, but she was just on a mission to clear his name. But her father was worthy and good and was not, you know, did not have a bad voice. And it's ironic because I'm sure you can hear my voice, my dad's, my uncles, all of us actually have rather deep voices. So that in itself dispels any mystery there. But um, when they married, actually, Leatrice Joy, being from New Orleans, was a she was a bigger star than Tom Gilbert at the time. She was um under Cecil B. DeMille. She was in the original Silent Ten Commandments and a plethora of movies, like so many. Um, I actually initially was trying to, you know, gather all the photos and all the things I could, and I quickly realized there's so many due to how high of fame they were. I had to start a whole Pinterest board that was just my great grandparents because I'm like, there's no way I could print and store all of these. But it is, um, they really made their mark in Hollywood. They loved being famous. Like my great-grandmother, my uncles and dad tell stories because she retired to Greenwich and lived there with them. She had a 40s um Volkswagen bus. And she would load up her projector and her films and travel around driving to these ladies' luncheon groups and show her films and speak on Hollywood and what the glamour of Hollywood was. So I love that she was so proud of it and accomplished and did what she wanted. But I kind of think maybe that was my role of coming to the family late. Because having been raised with it, most of my family that I'm now connected to, they just kind of always knew of it, but not really of it. It was just this thing that they heard of. And I've kind of brought new light into it because of my enthusiasm that they also had of rediscovering all this and knowing like this is something to be proud of, this is something really accomplished. And I mean, in their era, I mean, a movie cost 10 cents to attend for a nickel, and they were living with you know maids and butlers, and my grandmother would be sent in my great-grandmother's limousine over to her father's house for lunch. And that's and she got driven to school in in the limousine by the chauffeur, which you know, I rode a public school bus, so that literally did not trickle down.

Crista Cowan:

But I didn't know. Well, Hollywood of the Hollywood of the 1920s and 30s and 40s was a whole other world. Um, I I mentioned that I'm a fifth generation Los Angelino, and that's because I have a great, let's see, great great grandfather who decided he was going to go out to Hollywood and make it big, but he had nothing to do with acting. He was a printer and he wanted to print the scripts for the studios. And so he set up a printing business and he did very well for himself. So everybody connected with the movie industry in those early days. Like they had a role to play, and it wasn't always in front of the camera. But there was a lot of stuff happening. And then um, you know, the next generation, my great-grandparents uh ended up getting stationed there with the army. My great-grandfather ran the army recruiting office and was stationed then right there in the city, built a home just a few miles from where his father was living. And like that was kind of this whole interesting thing. His father had abandoned the family when he was a teenager. And so he had the opportunity to kind of re-establish a relationship with him. And my great-grandparents wanted nothing to do with the Hollywood industry. They kind of found it silly. And, you know, as they watched, you know, their father make such a big deal about it and such a big deal about the stars and such a big deal about the lifestyle, because it really was this like veneer of a lifestyle that a lot of those people were putting on. And some of them really did have the money to live up to it, but a lot of them didn't. And yet they still felt the need. I think maybe that era was where the term keeping up with the Joneses might have been coined.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Oh, definitely. That's what was so interesting, like to read about John Gilbert. And before I went out for that Easter, um, they had sent me the copies of her book and also a book written by an author named Eve Golden on John Gilbert. And it was sweet because the one written by Eve was sent to me by my uncle, who was the other uncle who had visited Arkansas, who was pleased that to add a niece, but not another daughter. I opened the Amazon package and it was that book, and it just was a simple note that said, Your great-grandfather, Uncle Chris. And I thought, like, that's the coolest thing. Like, this is this family introducing me to them. But reading my grandmother's book, there's a story in there where she talks about a going over at a Christmas, and she remembers her mother put her in this long white dress. And because she was kind of rekindling the relationship with the father, John Gilbert. And she remembers holding the dress up to go up the steps, and she was going in and she was talking about how it was going to meet her father. And the Christmas tree had real candles on it because Marlena Dietrich had decorated and done the Christmas gifts, of course. And just sitting there reading a book written by my grandmother about this anticipation of meeting her father while I'm reading it about to meet my father, that's her son, was kind of this connection as though she was walking me through a welcoming into the family that I had missed, which was just a neat surreal moment. But um, the irony, like you said, you know, your family being from California. My father's mother is from Los Angeles, also. Um, and he used to always say she was the Campbell Soup model for Campbell's Soup, beautiful young dimples, the ringlets, stunning. And she always had her little actors sag card. And he'd always tell me about this. And like her uncles worked for Warner Brothers in the costuming department, and so also this just connection to Hollywood. So I discovered all this, and of course, I'm like, oh, your mother was an actress. I was like, note my great-grandparents, each with a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Um, she thought it was a wonderful story, and ironically, this home where she grew up. We looked, of course, with the internet and Google Maps and ancestry and knowing where everyone lived. Um, her house is like two and a half blocks from my great-grandmothers and where my grandmother grew up. So and she ironically got stuck here in Arkansas because her grandparents or her parents drove from New York, they'd bought a big or driving back to LA just to see the scenery, thought it was pretty here, bought a dairy farm, and moved her. And so while here, she started college and met his dad, and that's how he wound up being from Arkansas instead of California. And I wound up back here, um, because obviously I was born here, but um, my mom went to um California to live just to get out of Arkansas, try something new. So that's how I wound up out there for high school, not knowing I was hours away from my dad, aunt, and cousins.

Crista Cowan:

Well, as you think about your great-grandparents um and their connection to Hollywood, tell us a little bit about what you know about how they got their uh stars.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Um, so literally, John Gilbert, it seems like they just worked nonstop. Um, they obviously had good publicists, they were attractive, um, put out tons of product. But like I said, Leatrice went from New Orleans to New York with a theater troupe. And then her agent or somebody were like, You need to go to California because this whole new thing was starting called Motion Pictures. And she and her mother moved out there and she just planted her roots, and Cecil DeMille signed her immediately. Um, John Gilbert started with Fox and then went on to MGM and secured a, like I said, quite a handsome contract. Um and he was actually with Greta Carbo with her first film. Um, there's a notorious, there's a many articles and stories written on them also, because obviously he had divorced my great-grandmother by then, but they were they put them in films all the time together. And the first film was called Love because they wanted it to say John Gilbert and this new actress, Greta Garbo, in love, and um it took. They were seen often, they went to all the red carpet events together. He is who is credited with um helping her negotiate her contracts and made it where she was one of the first ones that got good money, also as a starlet, um, which also made me feel good about him as a person. Like while he was successful, he clearly got his fair share. He helped others get theirs as well. And um she actually lived there on his property at Tower Road, and he was notorious for every time we had a new flame, getting his property completely redecorated. Um, Tony Duquette, the whole theme of more is more notorious interior designer, was Hootie utilized. So I love finding on the internet more and more photos of the interiors of his home and everything is what people surrounded themselves with. I think tells so much of their personalities. But um, John Gilbert, um, like I said, the two books written on him. There's a made-for-tv movie from the 80s that we found and watched, and it's him and Greta Garbo, and just knowing that they made such enduring, long-lasting names for themselves. And to be able to be a part of rekindling that, knowing that it was so important to my grandmother, I think is just a really neat random role in my life I never saw coming. I love that.

Crista Cowan:

Well, that is a legacy that it feels like you could keep digging into forever, and that's just your great-grandparents.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Yes. Like it's interesting to have ancestors that were so into the future and making sure they were known and that their mark was left. And so it's interesting to kind of pick up those pieces and keep that connection going.

Crista Cowan:

Yeah, it sounds like it. Well, as you think about the state of California, it sounds like it's played not just a role in the lives of your ancestors, but a little bit in the the role of your life as well, having lived there for a while. Um, yeah, what do you how do you feel about your connection to California?

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Well, it's kind of hilarious because I went there. I'd always, I mean, everyone dreams of California. It's got the ocean, it's got Hollywood, it's, you know, it's something no matter where in America you're from, and really the world, California is just known. It's a notorious, long-standing state of dreamers and just it's where you go to be successful, you know, and somewhat notorious. And so arriving there as an eighth-grade student, I thought, well, this is it. I am going, I'm here to be famous. That was what I should be doing. And so I remember meeting my counselor in high school, my first year there. And she asked, What, you know, what would you like to do? Well, I would like to be an actress and I'd like to go to UCLA. Because you know, they had a cute mascot, the little bears. It seemed perfect. And she was like, Well, let's look at something more realistic, being that you're from Arkansas. And I remember she just so burst my bubble as a 14-year-old. But I still enrolled in my, you know, freshman year drama drama class and won for, you know, best actress, a little award. And I thought, oh, this is gonna be it. I this is what I should do. But somewhere along the way, you know, high school cheer lady and just typical high school student took over. And after graduating, my mom made the decision to move back to Arkansas, much to my surprise. And so I kind of went back and forth for a moment and reluctantly chose to also return to Arkansas and kind of pass that dream up. I just always had this draw to that Hollywood lure. And I don't know why, but I can't help but think if I had been raised knowing who I was from, my great-grandmother was so proud. And she, my uncle that was the one I matched, said recently we went on a family trip together. And I was like, Did you not ever ask her to connect you with any Hollywood connections? And he goes, Strangely enough, being a hard-headed 20-something, he was determined to do it his way. And he kept going into New York City for these auditions, and she kept telling him to wear a suit, and he's like, Oh, you know, what do you know? And he's reluctantly said he finally on one audition wore a suit, and lo and behold, that was the audition he got the biggest role, the one that is on his IMDB, and he got the a role he wasn't even auditioning for, that was a bigger role from following her's advice. And I was like, and it never occurred to you to take more of it. But kids don't want to, you know, you don't listen to your elders, you should. Um, and she actually, as the story goes, was taking my grandmother to audition for Gone with the Wind, this new movie that was coming out. And on a whim, there was a young man, also from New Orleans, who regularly visited my great-great-grandmother, because his mother told him he wanted to go to Hollywood and be a star. And she said, Well, when you're there, you need to find Leatrice and her mother, and they will take you in as a fellow New Orleans. So it was their visiting, they were leaving to go to this audition, and she looked at him, my great-grandmother, and said, Why don't you come with us and audition? And so he did. And he's actually the soldier, the little red-headed soldier in the opening scene that's there on the porch with Scarlet O'Hara. He got a role from grabbing him and taking him. So knowing that she had good advice, she wanted to pass it down. If I had been interested, I do think I would have probably easily been molded into what they would now call a Nepo baby. But um, she definitely, I think, would have fed into my interest in acting and doing things.

Crista Cowan:

Candace, this is a journey, and I feel like it's never gonna end for you. I feel like we could talk forever. There's so much history, but I'm gonna so many individual stories like that just weave into the tapestry of what makes their lives what they were, and the fact that you get to discover it with new fresh eyes and then introduce your family to some of these stories that they probably were, you know, not really either not interested in or it just, you know, they were the fish swimming in the water that didn't know they were wet, right?

Candace Dixon-Horne:

But for granted, um, my younger cousins, they're age 12 and 15 years younger than me. One were really close. She and I, you know, she was very close to our grandmother, and she's so good to share stories with me because she knows that I missed out. And they called her Mun Man. And she's an aspiring writer. And I was like, oh, then you must love our grandmother's book. And she goes, I actually haven't read it. And my heart just sunk. I thought, this grandmother you're so dear to took all this effort to write a book and leave it for us. And so she actually sent me a few months later, she sent me a long note thanking me because she had cracked open the book and read it. And as such, she has now kind of restarted her writing career because she's a really good writer, and it kind of sparked that interest and that reassuring fact, but like you should do that. That is your calling, and it is what you should be doing, and your grandmother would want you to. And so I kind of take pride in knowing that I kind of helped bring that voice back into her life and nudge her along at a point where she had real big writer's block and was kind of floating out there, and it kind of tethered her to who we are, and she is too. And even though she had taken it for granted, she got to read that book. But my grandmother, again, eight years of her life researching and interviewing and traveling, and she went and did speeches on it. And it was such a passion of hers. And I'm just proud as a granddaughter that while I missed her, I haven't completely missed her because she left so much of a trail.

Crista Cowan:

Well, that's a beautiful note to end on. Thank you so much, Candace, for sharing your story and your family's story with us. And I wish you all the best in all the discoveries you continue to make.

Candace Dixon-Horne:

Well, thank you for all the research and all that you guys do at Ancestry because it truly has um changed not only my life, but many lives and in the most positive way that I could not have dreamt ever to be my story. So I I'm forever, eternally grateful. Studio sponsored by Ancestry.

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Crista Cowan | The Barefoot Genealogist

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