Billy Jack Lusk

Bill was born January 29, 1927 To Robert Willard and David Blanche Armstrong Lusk in Mambrino, Texas. An error by the Navy listed Bill’s birthdate as January 27, which followed him throughout his adult life. Born shortly before the Great Depression, Bill grew up on a farm in rural Hood County, which later became part of Granbury. Bill attended Granbury High School but left when he was 17 to join the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was stationed in Okinawa, then transferred to China where he assisted in the removal of the Japanese Occupation Forces. In China, he contracted rheumatic fever and was returned to Okinawa to recover. Upon his discharge, Bill received his high school diploma and enrolled at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth where he met his lovely wife Betty Jo McConnell whom he married in 1951. Unable to become a coach due to his rheumatic fever, he left college to take a job at Consolidated, which became General Dynamics. He then hired on at the newly opened General Motors Assembly Plant in Arlington. He also did body work part-time working on a variety of cars and trucks, including a car that had once belonged to Elvis Presley. He was a devout Southern Baptist. He was a deacon at Handley Baptist Church, which he attended for 50 years. He was an avid reader who loved to read about sports figures, lawyers and courtroom dramas both real and fictional. He loved to hunt quail, duck and pheasant, keeping, breeding, and training English Setters for most of his life. A farm boy at heart, he grew fruits and vegetables until his illness, including pears, pecans, persimmons, tomatoes and blackberries. Never one to be idle, Bill was an accomplished carpenter, woodworker, and metal worker. His home was filled with his various projects from over the years. He avidly attended garage sales looking for furniture to restore and sell. Along with Betty, Bill was an avid collector of sad irons and trivets, attending national conventions for collectors, and giving talks about their collection to several local clubs and organizations. Upon his wife’s death, Bill joined the city senior center in Handley and attended daily, making new friends and playing 42. Bill was a life-long fan of the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers, but the games he must enjoyed watching were those of his grandson Jake. He also taught Jake to shoot and was immensely proud when Jake shot his first squirrel.

Preceded in death by wife Betty Jo, survivors include daughter Melinda Coalson and husband John, of Irving; grandson Jake; step-granddaughters Megan Coalson, of Albuquerque, NM, and Kaitlin Kharat and husband Akshay, of Lambertville, NJ; a brother Robert W. Lusk and wife Sue, of Burleson; several nieces; a nephew; and many dear family members and friends.

Service: 1 p.m. Wednesday at Shannon Rose Hill Funeral Chapel, 7301 E. Lancaster, Fort Worth. Internment: Rose Hill Cemetery. Visitation; 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Shannon Rose Hill Funeral Chapel, 7301 E. Lancaster.