No one but
me knows how much Billie suffered these past two years. Sometimes I would
say “Mama, you hurt don’t you” and she would nod her head but never
complain. I think these last few months she knew she was about to die
because even though we always had a beautiful marriage we grew a lot closer.
I will always be thankful for that. Every where we lived she left behind
friends who loved her. You just would not believe all the people from all
over the country who contacted me at her death.
When we were married it was a fact that the high school in Paoli would not
accept married kids so it was that we thought Billie would have to quit
school. I regretted that she could not finish but she never complained or
said one word about it. When school started in 1943 they relented and agreed
to let married kids enroll. Billie was living in Chicago with her parents
but she beat it back to Paoli and earned her diploma. I was glad that she
did.
Billie was always active in her church. She held all
the offices in the women’s organizations in the three churches we belonged
to at one time or other. She even served on the vestry at St. Thomas Church
in Morris, IL. Other than the church, her one real passion was golf. After
having not played for fourteen years I decided to take the game up again in
1977 while living in Morris, IL. She said “if you play then I am too.” It
was like letting a monster out of its cage! She served as the president of
the Ladies League in Morris and also here in Nashville. For 8 years after I
retired we played golf all over the country, our clubs never left the trunk
of the car. After our move to Nashville we played every day if it wasn’t
raining. Playing golf together was the best thing that ever happened to us.
My son Mike went with me to buy her clubs and he said “Dad what if mom
doesn’t like to play golf?” That turned out to be a big joke in the family.
I never knew that anyone could hurt as bad as I do because of Billie’s
death. I am reminded of the last lines in the song that Ray Charles used to
sing;
“Now they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder and that tears are
only rain to make love grow.
Well my love
for you could never grow no stronger
If I lived to be a hundred years old.”
I know that Billie is up there with Jesus because she was in his fold. I
know also that she does not suffer any more and we will be reunited again,
this time never to be parted.
***
Back in the late thirties, once in awhile
Jake Groff and his son, Frank, would bring their guitars and put on a free
show up on the second floor of the old Dickinson Building on Maple Street.
There was a piano up there so "Mousie" Wininger would join them. There were
others that I have forgotten. I remember Dale Brewer and Hollis Wininger
would play if they happened to be in town. They would play for two or three
hours and they usually had a good-sized crowd there to hear them. Frank
Groff played what we all called a Hawaiian guitar but now we know that it
was a dobro. They would take requests from the audience and I saw a heck of
a fight up there one night. Roscoe Rogers and another guy whose name I have
forgotten had a dispute as to whose song the band was going to play next. I
think those guys are all gone now except “Mousie” and he is 89 years old.
Probably still plays.
Mousie used to play softball with us. He was
what you call a “good field, no hit” player. He played the outfield and he
never used a glove but if you would hit one in his direction it was “in the
well.”
***
Deceased Family Members
Thelma (Beatty) Page, 90, Yucaipa, CA
died 13th June, 2003. She was a daughter of Clarence and Delia (Smith)
Beatty who were former residents of French Lick. In the middle twenties
Clarence moved his family west to California. He was a brother to Orville
Beatty who was a prominent farmer in the South Liberty neighborhood.
Billie (Blackford) Beatty, 77, My beloved wife of sixty years,
October 7th at Vanderbilt hospital, Nashville, TN. As per her request she
was cremated and no services or viewing. A memorial service was held at St.
Matthias Episcopal Church in Nashville at eleven a.m. November 29th.
***
Beatrice(Grissom)Beatty - 86, Chickasha,
OK died October 22nd , 2003. She was the wife of Leslie Earl Beatty. He was
a great, great grandson of Aaron and Mary Beatty.
Lucille Zehr – 89, Dubois, IN, died November 14th 2003. She was a
daughter of Logan and Macy (Flick) Whittinghill and a great granddaughter of
Ike and Elizabeth (Beatty) Flick .