Mr. Billie Bill Earl Fitts

Bill Fitts passed away on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 in Galveston, Texas after suffering a massive stroke. He was greatly beloved by his family and by most that knew him well, and will be sorely missed. He’s now in a better place, having rejoined the love of his life, Lola, and all his siblings and parents.

Billie Earl Fitts was born on June 7, 1932 in Rusk, Texas to Charles Cicero Fitts and Bettie Ava Alexander Fitts. His parents had both been widowed, and he was the youngest child of seven born to Betty Eva and three fathered by Charles. His mother was 45 years old when she bore Billie Earl, which was highly unusual in that era.

Bill’s paternal ancestry traced to England in the 1600’s, from where they immigrated to Virginia. After the Revolutionary War, one of his ancestors received a land grant in Elbert County, Georgia where they moved in the late 1700’s. The family remained there through the Civil War, then moved to near Lyerly, Georgia where Charles Cicero Fitts was born.

Less detail is known about his mother’s side, but they were likely of English/Scots-Irish stock. It appears that the Alexander’s were part of one of the earliest waves of Anglo-American settlement in East Texas, judging from stories Bill told about his grandmother using a trap door when local Indians would come by. It’s possible that they came from Georgia, since many of those who populated that area of East Texas came from there.

Unlike many families where there is different parentage, those born to Bettie Ava were a close group. She had five surviving children from Mr. McCarty, her first husband. The only sibling that Bill didn’t grow up knowing well was his father’s daughter, Myrtle. His oldest sister, Mabel, was 21 years old when he was born and Hazel was only a year or so younger! Mabel’s husband, Lewis Dear, was a strong influence on his life. Besides them, Bill had four brothers: John D. McCarty, Tom McCarty, James E. (Ed) McCarty and Charles Fitts.

During his early childhood, Bill lived in and around Rusk. During WWII, the family moved to Houston where CC Fitts worked as an electrician in the shipyards. They lived off of Navigation Street, which has changed considerably since then. His brothers served the country as either active duty military or in the merchant marines during WWII.

After the war, the family moved back to Rusk. Charles Cicero Fitts passed away on December 2, 1946 at the age of 63 to a problem with his spleen or pancreas that would not likely be fatal today. Bill was 14 years old when he lost his father; his brother-in-law Lewis was much like a surrogate father to him through his adolescence, and his brother Ed played an important role encouraging Bill to stay in school and graduate. Ed also employed Bill as an assistant surveyor.

Bill attended Rusk High School and was active in football and several clubs. Judging from his old yearbooks, he was a popular young man. He maintained contact with several of his old high school friends for many years. During his junior year, Bill joined the National Guard with some of his friends. After graduating from Rusk High School in 1951, he enlisted in the United States Air Force. After basic training at Lackland AFB, TX, he went through specialized training at Tyndall AFB, FL and then was stationed at Bergstrom AFB, TX.

During the early to mid Fifties, Bill got a chance to see some of the world. He had duties in England and Japan during those years, for which he had fond memories. After four years, he didn’t immediately re-enlist, choosing to take a job at a refinery in Port Arthur. This didn’t appeal to him, so he re-enlisted in the USAF and was stationed at Ellington AFB, TX.

Being in Houston was nice since he had family in the area. His brother Charles had married Florence Owens and lived in Houston, while his sister Mabel and his mother lived in Freeport where Lewis held a job with Dow Chemical. In late 1955 or early 1956, Florence’s twin sister, Florene set up a blind date for Bill with Ms. Lola D. Lee. Lola was born and raised in Louisiana and had moved to Houston to find work. Bill and Lola obviously hit it off well-they were married on March 31, 1956 at Charles’ house!

After they were married, Bill and Lola lived in South Houston while he was stationed at nearby Ellington AFB. On October 30, 1957, a son (Gary Lee Fitts) was borne to them in Pasadena. In early 1960, Bill was transferred to Ladd AFB, in Fairbanks, Alaska. The young family drove from the Houston area to Fairbanks in March 1960-a trip of about 5,000 miles! The trip itself must have been quite an experience. Bill had been out of the South before, but Lola had never been out of Louisiana or Texas and did not drive, so Bill had to drive the entire trip.

One thing about living so far away from relatives-the young family obviously couldn’t spend their free time visiting with relatives so they did things on their own. This included attending “Eskimo Fairs,” featuring blanket-tosses and sled rides for kids; going to the dump to watch the black bears feasting on garbage and fishing in some unspoiled waters among other things. The environment was very challenging there-the temperature fell to -62 F and rose to near 100 F while they lived there!

While there, Ladd AFB was transferred to the US Army as Fort Wainwright. Bill was transferred to Eilsen AFB, located outside of Fairbanks. On June 16, 1961, Teresa Ann Fitts was born at the Fort Wainwright hospital in Fairbanks. Then in early 1962, Bill got orders for Perrin AFB, near Sherman/Denison, Texas. This was partly due to his mother’s illness-she suffered several heart attacks as she got older. The family moved to Perrin AFB in the spring of 1962, and he had attained the rank of Technical Sergeant before the transfer.

TSGT Fitts was stationed at Perrin AFB for three years. During that time, he had to spend about four months TDY in France. Although Sherman wasn’t nearly as close to his mother and family in Freeport and Houston, frequent trips were made to the Texas coast. One thing that Bill (and many others!) greatly enjoyed was the occasional feast of fried shrimp and oysters that his mother and sister Mabel would prepare on visits to the coast. Lewis had connections with local shrimpers, and a couple of Bill’s nephews also worked in the shrimp fleet-guaranteeing the freshest, best seafood!

In June 1965, Bill was transferred to McChord AFB, near Tacoma, Washington. During this time, as before, the family spent a great deal of time visiting places like Puyallup, Bremerton, Olympia, Seattle and Portland, along with doing lots of things locally. The family also got their first pet, a tan-colored Chihuahua named “Tina.” The kids were now both in school, freeing up Lola to gain her G.E.D., and to obtain her driver’s license. While stationed at McChord, Bill had to go on TDY for six weeks to San Francisco, just as the hippie scene was developing. He probably didn’t fit in very well in Haight Asbury!

As the summer of 1967 drew near, it became apparent that TSGT Fitts would have to go on a tour of duty in Southeast Asia. In June, the family drove from Washington back to Texas and Louisiana for an extended vacation in their brand new Plymouth Belvedere II. The good things about this car were that it was new and had a powerful V-8 engine with an automatic transmission. The bad things were that it had dark gray vinal seats, drank gasoline and did not have central air conditioning. We would regret this later during the trip.

The family spent about a month visiting relatives before heading back to the Pacific Northwest. Rather than returning through Colorado and Utah, this time we drove west to California then north to Washington. During the summer of 1967, Death Valley experienced the s second hottest day on record, reaching 133F. On that day, we happened to be driving our new Plymouth through the Mojave Desert-remember, without air conditioning! It was like driving through a forced draft oven-we had all the windows down. Poor little Teresa would get nauseous in the heat and was suffering throughout the drive. We made it to Bakersfield, CA that evening, spent a night there (they had a pool!), then took off driving for Tacoma the next day.

Bill left for duty in Ubon, Thailand in September 1967. Lola and the kids moved to Sherman, Texas for the time he was overseas. While overseas deployment cannot be any fun today, at least communication is a whole lot easier today. Back then, all we could do was to write letters and record voice tapes. We recorded and sent tapes back and forth throughout that year. Bill returned home in September 1968 arriving at Love Field, Dallas to a jubilant welcome.

We had learned that our next home would be in Alexandria, Louisiana where Bill would serve at England Air Force Base. Now Master Sergeant, Bill took on greater responsibilities within the Security Police serving as the NCOIC. Alexandria was a very convenient place with respect to family, with Bill’s mother, sister and brother-in-law having moved to New Salem, TX from Freeport, and being close to Lola’s family in Louisiana.

MSGT Fitts enjoyed his role in at EAFB, and was up for promotion to Senior MSGT. However, he was approaching 40 years old-an important age for starting a civilian career. This, coupled with a likely transfer (three years was about the limit to being stationed at any one place in those days), Bill decided to pursue becoming a Texas Game Warden, and applied for acceptance in their training program while preparing for retirement from the Air Force. He submitted his retirement papers in the fall of 1971, retiring in November of that year. Meanwhile he missed the final cut for that class of Game Wardens. His brother Ed (the same one that got him to finish high school) had contacts in Austin, Texas where he had lived for some time, and helped arrange for Bill to meet with Providence Washington Insurance Group about a job in their office in downtown Austin. He took a job as the mail clerk for PW in late 1971. In the meantime, Lola took a job for the first time since having kids-with the Austin Independent School District in a school cafeteria.

The family lived in an apartment near the old Robert Mueller Airport on Manor Road from around Thanksgiving 1971 until June 1972, when they moved into the first house they owned in what was then “far” northeast Austin. This was a 3-bedroom, 1 ½ bath tract home between Rundberg and Braker Lanes, and between I-35 and Cameron/Dessau Roads. Bill soon took courses to become a Claims Adjuster, and soon gained this position with P-W. Lola took courses in nutrition and eventually managed elementary school cafeterias. The children continued to grow up, with Gary graduating from high school in 1975, Teresa in 1979.

During the late 1970’s, Bill lost several family members that he was very close to. His mother passed away in 1977 at 88 years old, then Lewis died in 1979 after a bout with lung and throat cancer. Mabel remarried, but suffered from Alzheimer’s disease she passed away in the early 1980’s.

As the kids were growing up, their parents didn’t talk about “if” they would go to college, but “which” college they would go to. Bill and Lola saw the benefits of education, and instilled that into both of their children from an early age. As mentioned before, Bill required strong encouragement from his brother Ed to get through high school, while Lola had quit high school in the 8th grade and eventually earned her GED in Tacoma. Gary earned a degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980, Teresa from Houston Baptist College in 1983. Gary went on to obtain a Master’s of Engineering degree from UT in 1985, becoming the first from either side of the family to obtain a graduate degree. Bill and Lola were very proud of their children and of having made it possible for them to accomplish these things.

Bill’s second career continued to progress, as he advanced to becoming Branch Claims Manager in P-W’s Houston office in 1979, then as Regional Claims Manager in Anchorage, Alaska in 1980. This took the couple away from family, including their children for the first time since 1957, and they enjoyed their return to Alaska. One joyous occasion for them came when their college kids came to visit in May 1981. When everyone was there, we went on a trip to Denali National Park, then to Fairbanks and on south to Delta Junction and back to Anchorage. During the trip to Denali, Bill was on the quest for the perfect picture of a moose. While a red fox trotted by with a white ptarmigan (bird) firmly in its mouth, Bill was stalking a moose feeding amongst the alder bushes and missed out on a true Kodak moment, for which he was teased for many years! He never did get a good shot of the moose that day (others came later). In January 1982, Bill, Lola and Teresa made a trip to Panama for Gary’s wedding with Carmen. This was quite a trip-in mid-winter from subarctic daylight and temperatures to the middle of the tropics.

In 1983, Bill was transferred back to Austin to serve as Regional Claims Manager at P-W’s largest office outside of their headquarters in Rhode Island. Highlights for Bill in the 1980’s and 1990’s included Teresa’s marriage to Mike Burell in 1985, and the birth of his grandchildren, Erica, Scott, Abigail and Taylor, whom they adored. Another significant thing happened in 1986, when Gina-Lola’s daughter that had been adopted before she met Bill-located them and came back into their lives.

Bill and Lola returned for another “tour” in Anchorage, then moved to the headquarters in Providence, RI. The time in Providence was very different for them due to the cultural differences, but the couple traveled extensively around New England while they lived there and adopted an urban lifestyle buying food from local markets to prepare their meals with. They thoroughly enjoyed living in New England, but missed their kids and (especially) their grandkids. Bill was able to get transferred back to Austin, where he eventually completed his career with P-W in the mid-1990’s. At his retirement party he was given a book signed by all of the employees. All of the employees spoke of his integrity and professionalism.

In the early 90’s, they started looking toward retirement. Bill’s brother Charles had passed away in 1991, but he and Florence had bought a place on Lake Livingston, close to where Florene lived. As it happened, the lot adjacent to Florene’s came up for sale, and Bill and Lola decided to purchase this for their retirement. How ironic, becoming next door neighbors to the person who originally fixed them up for a blind date! In the early 90’s, however, it became apparent that the love of Bill’s life had some serious health problems. Lola was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, which was probably contracted either from a transfusion she received while having a hysterectomy in 1971, or when getting her ears pierced around 1980. Regardless, her liver function was gradually declining and she was placed on the list for receiving a liver transplant. On August 7, 1995 the call came in to bring her to the Baylor Medical System in Dallas to receive a liver transplant. The surgery took place overnight-initial indications were that it was a great success. However, Lola’s immune system had become very weak in the time leading up to the surgery. In its weakened state, it couldn’t fight off infection due to stem cells that were in the organ transplanted into her, which came from a teenage girl that had died in an auto accident in Oklahoma. Her prognosis went from excellent to poor very quickly. She briefly rallied but eventually passed away on November 1, 1995.

After Lola passed, Bill returned to Buda, TX (just south of Austin) and began the transition to retirement in Livingston. Before moving, he had a physical exam in May 1996 that detected blockage in two coronary arteries, requiring bypass surgery. He had a double bypass in Austin, then after recovery moved to the lake.

There were numerous projects to work on at the lake, along with his recovery from surgery. He became very cautious about his diet and was committed to walking several miles per day. By doing so, he lost about 25 lbs and was feeling well except for soreness associated with the surgical incision and with some pulse irregularities. These were relatively minor and didn’t stop him from the work he wanted to do. In December 1996, Teresa was in a serious traffic accident in Houston. His focus turned to his daughter and her recovery into the early spring of 1997.

In time, his wounds healed and Teresa was able to return to work and a normal life. Eventually, Bill was getting bored and was lonely. In the spring of 2000, Bill met Sue Hamrick on a church trip. They were both widowed and each filled voids in their respective lives. After a brief romance, they were married in June 2000 and set off traveling and having a good time. He was happier than he had been since Lola passed away almost 5 years before.

Then in September 2000, he suffered a stroke. Sue recognized the symptoms and got immediate treatment, but he required brain surgery to stop any bleeding that was occurring. Bill made an impressive recovery-there were no apparent signs that he had suffered a stroke-and the couple returned to travel and fun. They visited Sue’s family in Florida and South Carolina, took a trip to Hawaii, and participated in retired Air Force association meetings around the country. Bill enjoyed traveling with Sue.

Bill had a good relationship with Sue’s sons daughter in laws and grandchildren. Sue mentioned often that her siblings also thought highly of Bill.

In 2005 as he was returning home from a trip to town, Bill was in a serious traffic accident. The seatbelt caused internal bleeding, which led to surgery. As before, he bounced back from this very quickly. However, it appeared that the accident occurred due to a blind spot in his vision so he could no longer drive after this.

In Livingston, Bill enjoyed being neighbors with Florene, Florence and her son Randy. They were actively involved in their church and things seemed to be going well. In 2008, they decided that they needed to live somewhere that they could have assistance due to health issues and not have to travel, so they moved to The Forum at the Woodlands to a facility close to one of Sue’s sons.

Bill and Sue loved their dogs. When they married Bill brought his Chihuahua, Tinker to the marriage and Sue brought he dachshund, Sadie. Tinker fell in love with Sue and Sadie fell in love with Bill. After Sadie died they acquired another dachshund/Chihuahua mix named Lacey.

In December 2009 Bill moved to a facility in Houston called “Treemont” in Southwest Houston. This move allowed Bill to spend much more time with Teresa and Gary and his grandchildren. Bill would attend church with Teresa and said that he “really liked that pastor” (Zane Crawford).

On Saturday, May 15, 2010 Bill’s grandson Scott was to graduate from Texas A&M-Galveston at Moody Gardens on the island. The ceremony was scheduled to start at 9:00, so Gary had arranged to stop and pick him up at around 7:00. Upon arrival, Bill and Sue were drinking coffee in the cafeteria and flagged Gary down as he started to walk towards his apartment. They left around 7:15 and arrived at Moody Gardens in plenty of time for the ceremony.

Bill’s gait had slowed considerably over the years, becoming more of a shuffle than a walk, so they had to go slowly to get into the auditorium and needed to sit on the floor level, since climbing up and down stairs was clearly not a good idea. Bill enjoyed the graduation ceremony, and participated in the picture taking immediately afterward. From there, all went to Gaido’s for lunch to celebrate Scott’s graduation.

Bill ordered a grilled salmon fillet for lunch, which he seemed to enjoy. He said the blessing for the family when the meal arrived. As we prepared to leave, Teresa and Mike noticed that he was leaning to his left and came around the table to check on him. At first, we thought he might just be tired, but it became quickly apparent that something was wrong. A call was soon placed to 9-1-1, and emergency services arrived quickly to transport him to the emergency room at the UTMB-Galveston.

He maintained awareness as things were happening, complaining about us “throwing him around” as we initially tried to get him from a wheelchair into Gary’s car. Teresa asked him if he knew where he was (he didn’t), then if he knew who she was. He tried to joke with her-eventually saying that she was his daughter and Gary was his son just before the medics got to him.

After arriving at UTMB, a CT scan was performed that indicated a massive hemorrhage on the right side of his brain. We agreed to have them operate on him, which they did immediately to stop the bleeding and remove the pressure which was affecting the rest of his brain. The surgeons thought their work was successful, but a subsequent scan early the next morning revealed another area of bleeding, this time near the front of the brain. After this, the physicians did not believe that additional surgery would be of any benefit and we decided to provide for his comfort as nature took its course.

It did not appear that Bill regained consciousness after the surgery on Saturday afternoon. He expired peacefully at around 10:58 pm on Wednesday, May 19, 2010.

Bill was laid to rest next to Lola an Saturday, May 22, 2010 at Memorial Hill Park Cemetary in Austin, Texas. He had a full military burial. The flag was presented to Erica on behalf of Lola. The flag was buried with Bill. There was also a 3-volley solute and Taps was played. Bill would have been very pleased with the ceremony.

For those desiring, the family suggests memorial contributions be made to the Stroke Foundation at https://donate.americanheart.org. There is a memorial set up under Bill Fitts.