Billie Joan English, 77, passed from this life on July 19, 2008. Mrs English was born on January 26, 1931 to Joseph Marion Clark and Sula Hamby Clark.
According to Mrs. English, her place of birth was a cabin at the foot of a Kiamichi Mountain where Pine Creek empties into the Kiamichi River. Both streams were about 1⁄4 mile or less from the cabin.
She attended public schools in Moyers, Antlers and Grant, Oklahoma. She graduated from Grant High School in 1948 She attended Paris Junior College in Paris, Texas, Southeastern State University, East Central State and the University of Oklahoma. She received her bachelor’s degree from Southeastern and her master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma.
Mrs. English was a member of the First Baptist Church of Elmore City. Funeral services will be held there on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at the hour of 2 p.m. Burial will be in Sunny Lane Cemetery in Del City.
She was also a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Daughters of the American Revolution.
She is survived by her sons, James I. English III and David English and his wife, Hope; one beloved granddaughter, Megan Hope English; two brothers, David Clark of Texas and James Clark and his wife, Cheri, of Ardmore; and two sisters, Margaret Jolley of Edmond and Marilyn Gilhuly and her husband, Michael, of Marietta, Georgia. She is also survived by several nieces and nephews.
Mrs. English taught at Elmore City, Maysville and Central State University. She also worked for the Oklahoma Department of Education.
From these careers of 42 years in education, she is survived by a host of friends and hundreds of former students. She loved her students and they loved her. In 2003, she was honored by her former students at Elmore City by having the local library named for her.
Mrs. English was a writer along with her friend, Sharon Cooper Calhoun. She published Oklahoma Heritage, Oklahoma Adventure, The Wisconsin Story and Wisconsin Adventure. She also wrote a civil war novel entitled The Price of Blood.
A saying written inside the cover of her favorite Bible summarized how she ended her life: “When we have done all the work we were sent to earth to do, we are allowed to shed our bodies, which imprisons our souls like a cocoon encloses the future butterfly. And when the time is right, we can let go of it, and we will be free of pain, free of fears and worries – free as a very beautiful butterfly, returning home to God.”
In lieu of flowers, donations may be given to the Billie Joan English Library at Elmore City, the Youth Department of Elmore City, First Baptist Church, or to Oklahoma Baptist Children’s Homes.
Services are under the direction of Wooster Funeral Home. You may send a condolence to the family at www.woosterfuneralhomes.com.
