Wayne & Billie Lewis

So many people are gathered here today — from so many ages, eras, and generations — because Billie Lewis, with her loyal husband Wayne always at her side, touched people, taught them, and created spaces in which young students and even adult colleagues could be the very best they could be.

Both of their lives were dedicated to serving others.

Billie was born in Los Angeles, June 18, 1943. While her father was very proud of his collection of silver dollars and two-dollar bills, he happily traded it all to buy her a piano. He loved hearing her play and she loved how he would often excuse her from chores to practice. Her family migrated east to Oklahoma, and she graduated from Choctaw High School in 1961. At Central State University, she graduated with a double major in music and speech, and went on to complete a master’s degree there, as well.

Billie met Wayne at Central State. The couple soon married and spent the next 55 years together. Very together. Loving, caring, devoted to each other’s happiness — the pair were inseparable and deeply committed to the other’s success.

Wayne had been born in Shawnee on February 11, 1948. He graduated from high school there and went to Central State. During college, he became the manager of the Stateman’s Restaurant and Bar, right across the street from the campus corner. He learned the restaurant trade and soon opened his own bar down the street, the Scholars Inn. His business know-how led him into sales, and he was snatched up by companies from AstraZeneca to Campbell’s Soup. Ever the entrepreneur, he wound up working for a fluid power distributor, learned that trade, and of course, launched his own company, Horizon Hydraulics, which he and his son Joe operated for over 38 years.

Billie, meanwhile, applied her music education playing organ in church and teaching in schools. She found her way to a fresh prep school called Heritage Hall that had started in 1969 and signed on to lead their chorus, a job she mastered and maintained for 29 years, retiring in 2000.

We can talk about her marks of success, the impressive statistics. Her students won countless awards, individually and in groups, and the regular concerts in Heritage Hall’s gymnasiums, common areas, and eventual performing-arts spaces were highlights of each semester calendar school-wide. She had a special gift for matching the right song to the right aspiring singer, and many kids discovered and honed considerable talents under her astute leadership.

Billie nurtured talent, yes, but she also stoked self-discovery. She was so much more than a teacher of mere music. Her boundless enthusiasm and tireless encouragement enlightened and empowered any kind of student. Her chorus room was a safe place — to try things out (literally, as in a song, and figuratively, as in ways of being and thinking). Her influence radiates well beyond those with natural musical talent or even interest. She pulled music out of thousands of young people who didn’t know they had such a gift within them or even just a song in their heart.

Instrumental to Billie’s success was the support of her loyal husband. Wayne always worked a second job: he was Billie’s assistant. Really, it was his first job, the most important to him: propping up Billie, mostly so he could spend the time with her. Students knew Wayne as part of the team — stagehand, driver, lighting technician, soundman, occasional disciplinarian. All those shows got to go on in no small part because Wayne kept folks in line and helped the trains run on time.

Believe it or not, they both had extracurricular interests. Billie’s other passion was gardening; she won several awards for lawn of the year. That translated into cooking, as well, making legendary homemade salsa and sought-after pecan pies. She loved Halloween and their place was known as the Halloween house because of annual elaborate decorations. She was devoted to animals throughout her life, at some time having a pet raccoon, monkey, skunk, ferret, and crow, plus various cats, dogs, and birds. She loved her Amazon parrot Skipper, who she trained to sing like an opera star (and swear like a sailor). Wayne loved bikes and boats. He rode Harley motorcycles and had several sailboats, which he raced. They both enjoyed going to Las Vegas, Thunder games, and spending time with their grandson, Cason.

Billie was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1990, and she fought that situation with the tenacity for which she is so well-known, rarely allowing it to keep her from the people she loved and the life she lived so well. That she and Wayne passed away so near to each other in time and space is indicative of their unbreakable bond.

A memorial service for Wayne & Billie will be held Friday, March 8, 2024 at 1:00 PM at Crossings Community Church, 14600 Portland Ave, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73134.

Wayne & Billie will be laid to rest in Memorial Park Cemetery, 13400 N. Kelley Avenue, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.