William Kenneth "Bo" Terrell

A photo of a large mouth bass would have been an appropriate photo for Ken, or ‘Bill’ if you knew him from his Air Force days, or ‘Bo’ if you go way back to his youth. If he wasn’t spending time with wife of 58 years, he was fishing, he was talking about fishing, or he was cooking the fish that he had caught while talking about fishing. He was an active member and deacon of Waller Baptist Church where he spent much of his adult life serving the Lord. On those rare days when fishing wasn’t an option, he liked to tinker in his workshop, take care of his garden, and for unknown reasons perform yard work.

When ‘Bo’ was a boy, he had the joy of growing up a sharecropper’s son in the big city of Drew Mississippi. Back in those days they had large families to work the fields and perform child labor that would land parents in prison nowadays. Good fortune, however, shined on Bo as he was the 4th child born into an eventual family of six girls. While most would think that being the only boy was torture, it actually meant that he lived the life of a rock star with three loving older sisters to look after him and three younger sisters to look up to him. A tighter group of siblings you will never find. Until his last days, he maintained his practice of calling each sister on Saturday morning where he would pick and tease them as he always had done.

A slick young man with a cool flattop couldn’t keep working the fields so at 17 he escaped the farmers life by enlisting in the US Air Force. While serving his country, ‘Bill’ met the love of his life, Dorothy Sargent from Lake Charles Louisiana. A true ‘Louisiana woman, Mississippi man’ rela-tionship bloomed. During their early years of marriage, Ken and Dorothy lost their two daughters, Carla and Allison, to illness but later adopted their two sons, Rick and Doug. A couple tours in Vi-etnam and several remote assignments later, Master Sargent Terrell called it quits with 20 years in. He then went to work for the US Postal Service where he put in 20+ years until he could finally retire. During his retired years he enjoyed visiting with family and friends, seeing his grand kids and of course fishing.

When Ken finally decided to take those final steps to glory, he left behind his loving wife Dorothy, his sons Rick, Doug, his daughter-in-law Jennifer, and his three grandkids, Summer, Will and Jake. He leaves behind his sisters Jean Taylor, Maurice and her husband Howard Troyer, Opal with her husband Dennis Yarbrough, Carolyn and her husband Billy Webb, Patricia and her husband Rodney Moore, Donna and her husband Jimmy Mitchell, His sisters-in-law Emma Sargent and Paula Carlberg, along with about a thousand nieces and nephews. Kenneth LOVED his family each and every one and never hesitated showing it.

On July 9th at 2:10 am, Mr. Terrell succumbed to the complications of a nasty brain tumor that presented itself on February 2017. He put up a valiant fight and never lost hope or his sense of humor despite his discomfort. The world lost a great man on this day.

He will be laid to rest with military honors on Thursday, July 13 2017 at Hillcrest Funeral Home, 601 US-80, Haughton, LA 71037. Visitation will be 9am - 11am. Chapel service at 11.

Honorary pallbearers for Thursday's service include his brother-in-laws Rodney Moore, Dennis Yarboro, Jim Mitchell, Howard Troyer and Billy Webb, and friends Kelley Corkern, Nip Smart, Ron Eastridge, Richard Fanta, Noah Braley, Paul Clark, Barry Arnette and Justin Anderson.