Billy was the youngest of 7 children: Vernon, Melburn, Bern, Calvin Thomas (CT), Erin and Leona (Picky). The family moved to Austin Texas where Billy graduated from Austin High School in 1944. Shortly after graduation he joined the US Navy and served in the Pacific as a member of the "Greatest Generation". In 1946 he met the love of his life, Jean Crawford Blackwell who had travelled to Texas for Nurses training. They met on a blind date and were married the next year on October 19, 1947. Billy and Jean settled in Austin where he proudly served 38 years for Southwestern Bell Telephone. He began his career as a tree-trimmer and went on to install and maintain Microwave networks. During Lyndon Johnson's Presidency, he kept the circuits running at the LBJ Ranch.
They raised three rambunctious boys in Austin and in the wilds of their "Little Red" horse ranch near Elgin, Texas. He always had time for his sons; Mark Wayne, Stanton Neal, and Brad Lee. Billy was a model Father and Husband. Billy was a life-long follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and an active member of the Cameron Road Church of Christ. He had a gentle sense of humor, finding the humor in any situation. He was a friend to everyone he met. Family and friends learned his time-honored sayings like: "Everything is relative", "Time changes everything" and "Everything has to be somewhere". As a life-long resident of Austin, he was an ardent follower of Longhorn football and baseball. He spent many spring afternoons with friends in Disch-Falk Field, rooting for the Longhorn baseball team and took special joy in getting to know everything about the people around him. Billy was a generational "fixer" (a self-described "Jack-Leg"). There was nothing he could not fix with a combination of baling wire, duct tape and pull-ties. His technical expertise stopped at computers, which he suspected were not of this world.
Billy was predeceased by his parents and siblings and is survived by Jean, his wife of 72 years, his three sons and their spouses Mark and Rebecca, their children and spouses Drew (Emily), Hunter, Theresa (Bart), and Walker; and Stanton and Patricia, their children Travis and Zachary; and Brad and Charlotte and their children and spouses, Adam (Fran), Kyle (Erin), and Stacy (Adam).
Visitation will be at Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Funeral Home at 14501 North Interstate 35 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. with a Funeral Service beginning at 2:00 p.m. followed by interment at Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Cemetery. Friends and family are welcome to come and celebrate the life of Billy.
