Dixie and Innis Wood lived the ideal life in retirement. They built a home at Wicomico Church with an outbuilding filled with Innis’ massive workshop of tools galore. They were each talented in a variety of ways. Innis was the complete woodworker, a retirement pastime that complemented his professional career as an electrician.
Dixie was the daughter of Dr. Elmer Moorman, a beloved Kilmarnock physician. For her own career, she went into medical record keeping, which she put on hold after marrying C. H. Headley and beginning their family that grew to five children. In 1974, the Northern Neck community was shocked by C. H.’s murder, which left Dixie, at 38, on her own to raise their children, a task in which she succeeded magnificently.
Ten years later, she married Innis Wood, whom she had known all her life, thereby beginning a new chapter in her life. When they settled in Wicomico Church, they made their home an oasis in the woods, overlooking the Jessie duPont Memorial Highway, but screened by trees and its position on the hill. The surroundings were patrolled by their eagerly friendly Labrador retriever, Chance.
Although the house was charming in every respect, they longed to be on the water, which led to their building a new home on Dividing Creek in Ball’s Neck, replete with an outbuilding as a residence for Innis’ collection of tools and paraphernalia. In 2016, Innis died, and four years later, Dixie left the Northern Neck to move to Richmond where she died last month, two months short of her 90th birthday. Her dark brown hair never grayed, and she seemed far younger than her years.
As one struck by catastrophe early in life, Dixie demonstrated that she could triumph over adversity, and look to leading a life filled with productive and joyful times. In conversation, she was a repository of sage advice, always touched with the irony of humor.
Dixie Moorman Headley Wood, February 8, 1936–December 17, 2025. R. I. P.
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Della and Bill, who was also nicknamed Buddy, Embrey were another memorable couple who settled in the Northern Neck for their “retirement” years. I put the word in quotes because Bill never really retired. He was a born entrepreneur, who found his niche in life in the world of business and finance. He had a genuine knack not only for “making a buck,” but also for being of service to others.
He and Della recognized the onset of new technologies and responded by setting up video stores across the lower Northern Neck, which they termed B & D Video. The stores were quite successful, capitalizing on the emerging home entertainment market. They saw the movement in its infancy, and they realized when that phase of transmission was drawing to a close, leading them to sell the franchise and re-retire to their home on the bay.
Originally, Bill was from Midland, a small village in Fauquier County near the birthplace of Chief Justice John Marshall, where his parents continued to live throughout the course of their lives, except for their frequent visits to Della and Bill in the Northern Neck. Ashby, Bill’s father, was a wise old gentleman, who could speak about any current topic, and was a proficient guitarist. Bill’s mother, Ernestine, reaching to the age of 97, was a true matriarch of her family, living to be a great-great-grandmother.
Della died in 2023 and Bill died earlier this month at the age of 85. Talking to Bill was a broadening experience with respect to entrepreneurship. He was always astutely aware of the forces that governed the economy and articulate in expressing his understanding of them.
William Earl “Buddy” Embrey, November 8, 1940–January 14, 2026. R. I. P.
