Billy Joe Law

Billy is preceded in death by Ida Lee Law, his high school sweetheart and the mother of his two boys, and by his later-in-life partner, Ann Cooper Dawkins Law, who, during their marriage of nearly twenty years, loved and treated Billy’s children and grandchildren as her own.

A Bartow County native, Billy was reared in Kingston, by his late parents, Jake and Estelle Brown Law. Billy is also preceded in death by his sisters, Sandra (Mark) Kelly and Marthelle (Billy) Andrews.

Billy was a self-taught mechanic and persistent tinkerer, leading him naturally to a career working on automobiles and building airplanes. Locally, Billy co-founded Mission Tire with his partner William Wheeler, which they initially ran out of Billy’s basement off Mission Road. He later went to work at Lockheed Martin in Marietta, where he retired after a long and successful career.

As a boy, Billy was always the first person to church on Sunday morning, having been encouraged by his parents to be the bell ringer at the Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church in Kingston. When Billy discovered his love of fast cars, drag racing, and golf, he pursued tee times and finish lines with that same characteristic sense of punctuality. Billy cherished the memories and close friends he made on golf courses and racetracks (or backcountry roads) throughout the years, and especially loved regaling his grandchildren with tales of rounds and quarter-miles past.

Billy is survived by his two sons, Dane (Sheila) Law and Cole Law, his granddaughter, Maggie (Tyler) Will, grandsons, Fisher (Mary Helen) Law and Fletcher Law, all of Cartersville, Georgia, his great-grandchildren, Ana Cathryn and William Law, and many wonderful nieces and nephews too numerous to mention but loved nonetheless. Billy greatly enjoyed spending time with his in-laws, Neal and Martha Cooper and Judy Wilson, and his neighbors, Joe and Tina O’Shields, all of whom remain dear friends of the Law family.

The family will receive friends for a time of visitation on Friday, January 20, 2023, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., at Owens Funeral Home. The family requests that friends please consider donating to the Etowah Valley Humane Society in lieu of flowers.