Billie Don Parsons was born December 5th, 1935, the 6th of 7 children born to William and Helen (Elshere) Parsons. He attended grade school at Hardingrove country school in Milesville and graduated from Philip High School in 1954.
August 18th 1956, Billie was united in marriage to Connie Mae Morgan. Story has it that he was parked in front of the theater in Philip one afternoon when Connie and her mother Laura Morgan walked out, he stopped them and asked Connie if she would like to attend the dance in Midland that evening. Her mother approved and that set in motion a relationship that resulted in a marriage lasting merely 8 months and 18 days short of 70 years. To this union were born four children, Brad, Grant, Glenn and Marla.
He loved farming and ranching. Though he had a broad range of interests, he never considered doing any other occupation. He became a man at the young age of 14, when he and his brother’s assumed operation of the farm due to his father’s passing from a farm accident. He owned and operated several ranches before purchasing his current ranch on Plumb Creek in 1968. Feeding cattle was something he truly enjoyed and was good at. You could set your watch by the time he started feeding in the mornings.
He was active in FFA (Future Farmers of America) until he aged out of the program at 21. At the national FFA convention in Kansas City, Kansas in 1957, he was selected as the Regional Star Farmer for the central region of the US and congratulated by then President Harry Truman.
Family was very important to him. He was always thrilled to be with family and had an impeccable memory of little things the kids or grandkids did or said. He marveled at their accomplishments and would recount them many times over.
Billie was creative, with five patents ranging from a hydraulic resistance exercise bike, a hydraulic resistance stair stepper, an exhaust heat shield for open air tractor mufflers, a portable protein block feeder for cattle and a grain drill mounted rod weeder that dramatically improved production and weed control in wheat. He and Brad even created and registered a board game called the Pro Rodeo Game, patterned after the rodeo circuit and national finals. Marketing was always elusive, but his heart was really on the ranch anyway.
It was well known that he had a rather significant dislike of computers, especially when they were part of a tractor, that he always had a “dinner napkin” in his pocket for a grease rag, that almost every conversation longer than 5 minutes incorporated a few political observations and being late was as close as you could get to a cardinal sin.
He loved the Lord Jesus Christ and wasn’t afraid to share the reason with others.
Billie is survived by his wife Connie and their four children, Brad (Wendy) Parsons of Visalia, CA, Grant (Sandra) Parsons of Milesville, Glenn (Dianne) Parsons of Philip, and Marla (Kyle) Petersen of Dazey, ND, nine grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild, sister Doris Berry of Philip and sister Leah (James) Waddell of Sioux Falls; sisters-in-law Joanne Parsons of Rapid City, and Janice Parsons of Milesville.
He was preceded in death by his parents, an infant son, grandson Kirk Parsons, his brothers Dean, Boyd, and Bart, and one sister Mary Slovek.
Visitation will be held at the Milesville Hall from 5-7 Tuesday the 6th of January with a short service to follow.
Funeral services will be held at the Milesville Hall Wednesday the 7th of January at 2PM with interment at the Milesville cemetery following the service.
Arrangements are with the Rush Funeral Home of Philip.
In lieu of flowers a local memorial has been established.
