Edith Tipple

Edith Dickinson Tipple, a resident of Santa Barbara since 1946, died peacefully at her home on August 12, 2020. Edith was born on March 14, 1934 at her ancestral home in Nashville, Tennessee, the daughter of Jacob McGavok Dickinson Jr., a foremost Arabian horse breeder of the time, and of Margaret Adams Dickinson Seeger, of Cincinnati, Ohio. Her paternal grandfather, Jacob McGavok Dickinson, was a leading attorney in Chicago, Illinois and the Secretary of War under President Howard Taft. Her maternal grandfather, Rufus Biggs Smith, was a distinguished attorney and judge in Cincinnati, Ohio, in whose honor a plaque adorns the wall of the University of Cincinnati Law School. Travellers Rest, the home in which Edith was born, is now a Historic House Museum. From there the family moved with their 60-horse stud farm to Rancho Oso at Paradise Camp. It was from there that Edith established her lifelong love of Santa Barbara and of Montecito, where she lived from 1948 to the present, except for six years spent in Cleveland, Ohio and Austin, Texas (1954-1960) when she was married to Joel Loring Andrews. In 1961 she married John Ord Tipple, who died in 1983. She attended Laguna Blanca School, Stanford University, and The University of California at Santa Barbara, majoring in philosophy. Edith also had an ardent interest in spiritual psychology. In this pursuit she wrote innumerable articles and book reviews for various Vedanta periodicals and five children’s books of eastern tales for Western children. Edith is survived by two daughters, each of whom she adored and admired for wide-ranging accomplishments: Marina Andrews Parke (Jeff) and Jocelyn Tipple; two granddaughters, Megan Parke Baxter and Hayley Parke D’Auria, as well as by her sisters, Maxi Decker of Santa Barbara and her brother Rufus Dickinson of Toronto, Canada; niece Whitney Heimlich Ingersoll and Sven Dickinson of Santa Barbara, and seven others scattered throughout the country. At this time, no memorial services have been planned. In lieu of flowers, Edith has asked any remembrance be sent to either The Vedanta Society of Southern California or to The Food Bank of Santa Barbara County. Arrangements entrusted to McDermott-Crockett Mortuary