Billy Duane Moore

Billy and Jeannie Moore met in Portales, New Mexico in the summer of 1961. Jeannie (Lonna Jean Townsend) was attending the university, training to be a teacher and living on her own, a young widow with two small boys. Billy had returned to school for a masters degree in sciences and a teaching certification. Billy sometimes stayed with the boys while Jeannie attended evening classes and after a few weeks he bought her a fully automatic dishwasher that they could roll across the kitchen floor and connect the water in and out through hoses to the kitchen sink. She was thrilled.

A love of cooking and being together in the kitchen was definitely a trademark of the Moore household. We will always remember big, happy family meals of the finest fare and often served on fine china and crystal. We were usually dressed in casual clothes and sports wear and everything else about the weekend or evening would be casual and relaxed, but the food was served with the greatest care. Eggs benedict, lobster, every cut of beef cooked to perfection, enchiladas, guacamole, salads, asparagus (often home grown). And the dishwashing was a family event as well.

Before Bill met Jeannie he was an electrician and worked with a firm that flew in small private planes around New Mexico wiring newly constructed homes, businesses and schools. In fact on the day of Billy and Jeannie’s first date he was flying from Lake Conchas back to Clovis but was forced to land early in a farm field to escape a large storm and walked through muddy fields, borrowed a car, drove through flooding streets and finally reached the appointed place 2 hours late. That’s a little image of how hard Billy would work for something he wanted, like a snappy little 5 foot 2 brunette. They married soon after meeting on December 1, 1961 and honeymooned on a dove hunt with Billy and his hunting buddies.

Billy earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Science from Eastern New Mexico University and later a Master’s. He grew up in Clovis, New Mexico working with his family in their businesses, including a steam laundry and a wheat farm and sheep farm. Billy even left college during his sophomore year to help his father after he became ill. At that time Billy was attending Hardin Simmons University, Abilene, Texas where he began his college education. He sang in a men’s chorus there. Choral singing was something he had always enjoyed and, among the many wonderful things that Tulsa Jewish Retirement and Health Care Center did for Billy, it offered him a chance to sing in a choir group again.

Billy came to Clovis NM when he was four, but before that was born in his mother’s hometown of Lamesa, Texas on June 27, 1936. His parents were Ivy Louise (Huddle) Moore and Fay Emery “F.E.” Moore. Their wedding date was April 4, 1933. Ivy was born in Lamesa, Dawson County on January 6, 1911 and F.E. was born in Dawson County on December 31, 1909. F.E. recovered from the heart attack he suffered in 1956 and lived to be 87, passing on October 26, 1996. Ivy was an energetic and thorough homemaker and passed at the age of 83 on July 7, 1994.

Billy’s brother Milburn and his wife Donna live today in Albuquerque, NM and Billy’s sister Barbara Hughes lives in Clovis, New Mexico. Barbara’s husband Jim passed on March 2, 2015.

In 1969 Billy and Jeannie left Clovis and moved to Dallas, Texas with their two teen sons, Ricky and Tracy, and two young daughters, Lisa and Cathy. Bill had been accepted to the law program at Southern Methodist University. He immediately studied and became licensed to sell residential real estate in Texas and began working as a realtor while attending law school. He finished law school in 27 months and received a JD. He began work as a real estate attorney at Hexter Fair in Dallas in January 1972. Eventually he opened his own law practice in Farmers Branch, Texas where he practiced family law, estate, will and trust law and some criminal law.

Billy also spent a big part of his law career as a public defender in Dallas County. He was on call night and day for clients who needed help posting bond, and worked tirelessly to ensure that those clients, some of who were mentally ill, were treated fairly in the court system.

Though he worked long and hard Billy kept working when he got home. His early experience with construction led him later to be a home builder in his spare time. He built several homes under the company name “Moore Homes.” He built and fixed many things around our home, included a big red wood deck that surrounded a beloved hot tub that was mainly used by many little grand kids who loved splashing and playing in the warm water. And like I said before, Bill was never one that thought kitchen work was women’s work. He would happily go get the bacon at the grocery and bring it home and cook it and wash the pan. His wonderful example was closely followed by his two sons who are the main chefs and kitchen specialists in their families.

Billy’s energies were sidelined when he suffered a stroke in 1999. But he worked hard, swimming, attending therapy sessions and continuing to work hard at projects around the house. I remember him lying on the floor putting together a brand new storm door for the front entry, with the help of his friend David Moore. He continued to enjoy entertaining his family at home and cooking every chance he got as his family grew to 11 amazing grandchildren and 4 children and spouses. Family gatherings were always big and rowdy and usually centered around a beautiful backyard pool and patio that Bill and Jeannie kept in perfect working order.

After Jeannie retired from teaching high school English in 1979, she worked for many years for Stewart Title and was one of the top residential home sales closers in Dallas. When Bill and Jeannie were ready to retire they sold their home on the Brookhaven Country Club golf course (a home which Bill had gutted and remodeled in 1981) and moved to Jenks. They bought a smaller, golf-course-side home in Jenks and one of their favorite things to do is sitting on their patio watching small aircraft take off and land from Jones Riverside Airport. Over the last 8 years Bill had continued to enjoy hosting family in his home and keeping up with all of his amazing grand children. He also really enjoyed cable television, especially cooking shows, crime reenactment shows and Deadliest Catch, the reality TV show about crab fisherman working in the Bering Sea. Somehow we think if Bill could have he would have added crab fishing to his very long list of professional accomplishments.

The last year that Bill spent living at Tulsa Jewish Retirement and Health Care Center was an especially rejuvenating time for him. He enjoyed many many new friends who were ready to verbally spar and joke and laugh with him all day long. He received the best and most endearing nursing care and was pushed, prodded and challenged to be the best that he could be for this last big aria. He enjoyed the community of living in this home and opportunities to sing, work on committees to improve the life of the residents and minister to his friends who lived with him. Billy’s family will never be able to say “thank you” enough for the love and kindness and respect he knew in this last year.

Billy’s death leaves a gaping whole in our family cloth, but we know he is with the Lord he loved in heaven and that he did what any of us can hope to do: lived his life fully, with a heart for people in need and with constant prayers for the well-being of his own family. His children and grandchildren in fact are the proof of his success and they will miss him terribly in the days to come.

The celebration and reception will be at the Tulsa Jewish Retirement and Care Center on Monday October 24 2-4pm

in lieu of flowers please make donations to the Juvenile diabetes research foundation.