William Jack Sibley

William Jack Sibley, author, playwright, screenwriter, historian, journalist, rancher and environmental steward, died suddenly at a San Antonio hospital on Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, with family at his side.

Born in Corpus Christi on Nov. 13,1952 to an artistic, South Texas beauty, the late Alberta Martin “Bette” Mason, and a Texas A&M University yell leader, the late Dr. H.Q. Sibley, Bill - or Billy Jack to old-timers - started life in the South Texas towns of Robstown and Alice.

Following his parents’ divorce, he moved as he started sixth grade to upstate New York and later Scarsdale, where he graduated from high school.

Soon, the vibrant hues that colored Bill’s life began to emerge.

He took acting classes in New York City and later sampled a variety of disciplines while touring exotic ports on Queen Mary’s floating college. He also spent about a year working and honing his Spanish in South America.

Then Texas, never far away, called.

He came to Austin to complete college at the University of Texas. There Bill fell in with the Radio, TV, and Film crowd.

He said he first wanted to be a film director, learning all the filmmaking underpinnings, but a play he wrote, Governor’s Mansion, won the Southwest Regional Playwright’s Competition and modified the direction of Bill’s aspirations.

He admitted in a 2021 interview, that because of that play and its showing at an Austin theatre, he “got hooked on writing.”

A secretary of the Texas Institute of Letters and member of the Writers Guild of America, Bill has been observing and writing, in all its forms, ever since.

He has completed four novels, Any Kind of Luck in 2001, Sighs Too Deep for Words in 2012, Here We Go Loop De Loop in 2021, a trilogy of tales about the unique characters and unexpected goings-on of small-town Texas, and The Hang of It, scheduled for release soon.

Here We Go Loop De Loop won the top award for humor in both the Indie Reader Discovery and the Gold Medal “Ippy” Independent Publishers book competitions in 2022.

Throughout Bill’s life, he wrote plays for off-Broadway and regional audiences, including the one-act play Rain/Princess Elizabeth/Malta, seen off Broadway in a Manhattan Rep’s New Workshop production in 2023.

He also wrote a dozen screenplays, many of which were sold or optioned to Hollywood insiders but none of which, despite the author’s tireless efforts, have gotten to production so far.

After moving to New York City following college, he parlayed his association with the New Dramatists developmental lab for playwrights into a gig writing dialogue for television’s Guiding Light and later Murphy Brown.

He also got to know groundbreaking artist Andy Warhol during his New York residency and became a contributing editor for Warhol’s Interview magazine.

Locally, Bill penned travel articles and essays for newspapers and periodicals and had a column in the San Antonio Current about the “great eccentrics” of the city, a topic close to his heart.

And in the midst of his writing, Bill made time to oversee his cattle operation outside Christine and to assist siblings with their ranches. His family has been running cattle for five generations in South Texas and while it might seem like an odd endeavor for an award-winning wordsmith, ranching was something that Bill embraced enthusiastically.

He made the trip weekly – often with Remy, his aging Brussels Griffon, by his side – from his Don B. McDonald designed home in San Antonio’s River Road neighborhood to Christine to see that fences were holding up and cattle were fed and healthy.

Horses, goats, donkeys, even ostriches joined the aggregation Bill cared for over the years, a source of both consternation and fulfillment.

“He tried a little of everything,” his brother Jeff Sibley said.

A self-described “history nut,” Bill was the go-to person for names and relationships in his sprawling family and consumed historic stories and writings, particularly on Texas, passionately.

A longtime board member of the Texas Historical Foundation, Bill was a key force in the refurbishment of the Christine train depot and combined his love of writing and history by helping put on an annual celebration of beloved author J. Frank Dobie and other Texas writers called “Dobie Dichos.”

His reverence for the land persuaded Bill to fight for sound environmental policies, particularly in relation to water issues. He was an active board member of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, a leading advocate for the protection of the Edwards and Trinity Aquifers.

The former Braniff International Airways flight attendant and SeaWorld San Antonio entertainment announcer traveled widely over the years while living at various times in New York, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Houston and most recently, San Antonio.

He touched people wherever he went with an unusual ability to make folks smile and feel special.

The Chat GPT artificial intelligence app, something Bill would no doubt have reservations recommending, had this to say when asked about the essence of the multifaceted man – “William Jack Sibley lived like his novels – funny, sharp and impossible to forget,” and “He walked the line between mesquite and Manhattan, and made both his stage.”

It would be hard to argue with either.

Bill is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Hobie and Karen Sibley of League City, niece, Meredith Dela Rosa of League City, Meredith’s daughters Lanie Dela Rosa of San Marcos and Dylann Dela Rosa of League City, nephew Justin Sibley, his partner Ashli Hughes and their son Milo Sibley of Austin, brother and sister-in-law Jeff and Andrea Sibley of San Antonio, sister Suzanne Sibley of Rogersville, Tennessee, many cousins and extended family.

The viewing will be Tuesday, Sept. 9, from 5-8 p.m. at Porter Loring Mortuary, 1101 McCullough Ave. in San Antonio, with funeral services at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10, at Porter Loring’s McCullough location.

Graveside services will be at the Christine cemetery Thursday, Sept. 11, at 11 a.m.

To view a recording of Bill's service, please click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f5gatJmbTP5UlqUdTtI4ba1J9Ul-FFp6/view?usp=drive_link

To view the music slideshow from Bill's service, please click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QI_51pbl_-2axB2uN5rOUA9JzNN7Zb7y/view

To view the photo slideshow from Bill's service, please click here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mz8wa88sh26ptmtyn9t52/Bill-Sibley_A-Life-Celebrated.mp4?rlkey=gsqhw1tcran1297qwj3uvcu8k&e=1&st=kt26nj7j&dl=0