WEST POINT, N.Y. — Death is no stranger here. It is the United States Military Academy, Army for the less formal. The chapels here, for Catholics, for Jews, for Protestants, are used often to mark the deaths of young soldiers, male and female.
But even so, on a cold and rainy spring Friday, more than 670 packed the 550-seat Chapel of the Most Holy Trinity, which sits on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River. Mourners attending this memorial service had come to cry for and laugh about, to praise and honor Maggie Dixon, 28, not a soldier, a coach.
Dixon, who grew up in North Hollywood, had coached the Army women's basketball team for one season. She died Thursday after collapsing Wednesday afternoon while having tea with a friend who had recently lost a job.
According to a spokesman at the Westchester (N.Y.) County Medical Examiner's office, an autopsy Friday showed that Dixon had an enlarged heart and a malfunctioning valve that might have caused her heart to beat irregularly and stop.
Her brother, Jamie, men's basketball coach at Pittsburgh, said in a statement, "Maggie touched so many people beyond basketball. I know she looked up to me. But I always looked up to her too, and it's obvious that a lot of other people did as well."
Dixon's older sister Julie, a Los Angeles lawyer, and her parents, Jim and Marge, had arrived at her bedside about 4 a.m. Thursday, after flying from Southern California. Jamie, 40, had spent Tuesday night at Maggie's place while on a recruiting trip. They'd had breakfast Wednesday morning.
And Dixon, who was 6 feet 1 and a standout basketball player at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High and the University of San Diego, had seemed in great health last weekend when she joined Jamie, his wife and their two children to cheer on UCLA at the men's Final Four at Indianapolis and then for a quick trip to Boston to watch part of the women's Final Four.
Three weeks earlier, Maggie had joined Jamie in New York for a celebration after Army had won its Patriot League tournament while Pittsburgh was playing in the Big East tournament.
Jamie Dixon had been UCLA Coach Ben Howland's assistant at Pittsburgh, and Howland's voice shook when he spoke of Maggie.
"She was on target to be the next Pat Summitt," Howland said, referring to the highly successful coach of the women's team at Tennessee. "I firmly believe that."
