Bella Vista’s Billingsley leaves legacy

BELLA VISTA — George Billingsley was the waterfront director at Kamp Kia Kima, a Boy Scout camp just outside the house of Hardy, Ark., in the 1950s when he very first satisfied Boyce Woollard.

Woollard’s young brother, John Cooper Jr., didn’t know how to swim and her stepfather, John Cooper Sr., reached out to the camp to arrange swimming classes. Woollard accompanied her young brother for those people lessons in which she became buddies with Billingsley.

“I’m not absolutely sure how significantly they dated, but daily life occurs and George went into the Navy and Boyce went to university at the College of Arkansas and eventually married Charles Morgan,” claimed Neff Basore, a 3rd-era member of the Cooper household and nephew of George and Boyce Billingsley.

Boyce’s relationship to Charles Morgan didn’t operate out and she and her son Chuck moved to Cherokee Village, Ark., where by her family experienced commenced a modest real estate development, Cherokee Village Growth Enterprise. Boyce made use of her business diploma to do the job in the organization workplace of the family members organization, which is now recognized as Cooper Communities Inc.

That path led Boyce back again to George Billingsley and the two married in 1959.

That relationship was the commence of what would be a interval of groundbreaking contributions — the two in organization and philanthropically — to Bella Vista and Northwest Arkansas.

Boyce Woollard Morgan Billingsley, 89, handed absent at her dwelling in Bentonville on March 18 following a prolonged disease — just beneath 19 decades following the passing of her spouse of 43 years.

It was 1965 when George Billingsley was named vice-president and undertaking director for what would be the new Bella Vista Village. George and Boyce produced the move to Northwest Arkansas to start a monumental time that served condition a lot of factors of Bella Vista and the area for several many years.

“George was one of the very best salesmen I have at any time viewed and was in cost of profits, and Boyce was incredibly associated in the accounting division and incredibly palms-on,” mentioned Basore, whose mom Ann Woollard Basore, was Boyce’s older sister. “When she was about, primarily when she was in the income center, it wasn’t just sitting down there. She recognized what was heading on and would enable the young salesmen with any quantity of challenges.”

And she was not fearful to be read, Basore explained.

“Boyce by no means resisted allowing you know her viewpoint,” he mentioned with a chuckle. “Ninety p.c of it was great. The rest of the time you did not truly want to know mainly because it was ordinarily a thing you did not do that you should’ve done. As the oldest grandchild, I was on the acquiring end of a good deal of her constructive criticisms.”

Boyce Billingsley was born on Oct. 27, 1931, in Memphis, Tenn., to Mildred Borum and DB Woollard Jr. The to start with year of her lifestyle was spent in Memphis and then the family members moved to West Memphis.

When she was 5, her father drowned even though on a fishing journey. Her mom, Mildred, elected to continue to be in West Memphis and was appointed postmistress of the West Memphis Submit Place of work.

Mildred later married John Cooper Sr., and the spouse and children remained in West Memphis wherever Boyce attended and graduated from West Memphis Significant School.

Alongside with her son Chuck from her very first relationship, Boyce and George Billingsley had two daughters, Boyce Ann and Kelly.

From the start out, the loved ones always had a giving frame of mind and it confirmed, Basore explained. The few led an lively social everyday living and were pretty associated in neighborhood support.

“And Boyce, even in the later many years, never stopped supplying,” he stated.

Boyce was closely associated with Bentonville educational facilities and the Bentonville-Bella Vista Boys & Girls Club, serving on the faculty board for 10 several years and as a Lady Scout chairman for quite a few yrs.

She helped commence the Bella Vista First United Methodist Church and was also a board member of the Walton Arts Centre in Fayetteville.

The Billingsleys gave generously to the University of Arkansas, equally serving on the campaign for the 21st-century steering committee, which realized the College of Arkansas’s 1st billion-dollar funding. Collectively they obtained the Arkansas Razorback Foundation Distinguished Support Award and the Chancellors Medal in 2005.

In 1999, the few donated $1.15 million to the College of Arkansas new music division, and in 2012, when Boyce was downsizing her Bella Vista property in preparation for a shift to Bentonville, she donated her 17-yr-previous Steinway Design M piano to the College of Arkansas and Sturgis Hall at the Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni Property.

“Right after wondering for some time who I could give it to, I remembered the university,” Billingsley told the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette at the time. “I questioned Chancellor Gearhart if there was any curiosity in getting this piano, and he said he would be delighted to have it. I am delighted they have decided on the alumni residence for its spot.”

No subject how huge or compact the donation, providing to others was generally vital for the Billingsleys, Basore claimed.

“By means of the a long time, they ended up often extremely supportive of the college and they contributed sizeable amounts of income to tunes and athletics and other factors,” he mentioned. “When George branched out into other traces of business enterprise, Boyce continued her philanthropic things to do.

“You can undoubtedly see her affect on a lot of items. She did a great deal to assist boost educational facilities and just the space in general.”

In accordance to her obituary, Boyce was preceded in loss of life by her partner, dad and mom, her stepfather, John A. Cooper Sr, her brother, John A. Cooper Jr., and her sister, Ann Woollard Basore.

She is survived by her youngsters, Charles (Chuck) Morgan III of Boca Raton, Fla., Boyce Ann Billingsley of Hudson, N.Y., and Kelly Billingsley Jones of Bentonville, two grandchildren, George Wolfram and Rebecca Wolfram of Hudson, N.Y., and one sister, Rebecca Cooper Whelan of Incredibly hot Springs.

In lieu of bouquets, the family members is encouraging memorials to the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter in Bentonville.

Basore stated it was Boyce’s want not to have a community memorial support.