 Billy Hunt was my first Hallmark friend.  I remember exactly the first time I saw him.  I’d been there a week and was just walking into our coffee break room when I heard several women scream, “Look...Billy’s back from vacation!”  Into the middle
of that assembly walked this sharp little dude who would have looked like he’d just stepped off the cover of GQ, had there been a GQ at the time.   He just strutted right in like he owned the place, and in a way, I believe he did.  Obviously, everybody loved him and wanted to hear about his latest adventures.  You talk about charisma, there it was!
   Billy was friendly, funny, easy to talk to and interested in other people in a way that 
couldn’t be faked.  Soon he’d learned all about me, and I was totally delighted 
to find we shared a lifelong love of singing old songs and watching old movies. Before long, we became close friends.  Over the years, we visited Hollywood, Vegas and Broadway together and watched some of our favorite performers from Mel Torme to Judy Garland to Ethyl Merman to Frank Sinatra.  He made watching them more fun.  
   Billy also liked traditions. He first invited me over to watch the Oscar Show in 1963.  Since then, we’ve enjoyed nearly forty seven Oscar nights together with our family of Hallmark friends. That includes the most recent one, at which time we both admitted we just weren’t able to keep up with all the nominees, but it was as great a time as ever. 
    I have always been proud to belong to The Milton Society, a book discussion group he helped start back in 1979, made up of (then) young Hallmarkers. We still meet once a month to gripe, commiserate and rejoice about world events, reminisce about wacky moments in our Hallmark histories and discuss a book for no longer than twenty-five minutes, rarely coming to any solid agreement as to its merits.  Billy definitely didn’t like all the books, but when he did like one, he certainly let us know about it.  To give you an idea of his excellent literary taste, the last book he nominated was Catcher in the Rye, which we were scheduled to talk about this Friday night at his house.  We had read it before, about twenty years ago, but he thought it would do us all good to read it again.  And he was right.  
   As a Hallmark Designer who started out as an English Major, Billy was unique.      Whether he was designing cards, albums, books or whatever, he always put the emphasis on Hallmark Quality and he always added some extra-special Billy Hunt touches that pleased the consumer and fortified our reputation as “The Very Best.”
Well into his career, he was assigned both the designing and the editing for the entire Calendar line.  He worked with a variety of in-house and outside design sources to come up with the visuals, which he laid out all by himself.  And Writers considered it an honor to be asked to write one of his calendars.  He always knew exactly how he wanted them to look and sound.  More importantly, he knew exactly how to make them look and sound that way.  I honestly don’t know anybody else who could have handled such a complex creative task so expertly.
    Gail and I always admired Billy as a family man -- a loving son, a caring, if sometimes crotchety, brother, a proud uncle.  When we told our daughter Emily the sad news of his death, she spoke of how nice he’d always been to her as a child.  “What other adult,” she wondered “would just turn completely away from a party to watch movies with a five year old kid?”  Billy was that kind of an adult.  And, yes, that kind of a kid.
    And now, please forgive my B-Movie Imagination and allow me be sentimental in my own way.  Mr. Jordan came to call on Billy much too soon.  But I like to think he’s up there someplace chatting about old flicks with Hedy Lamar, Greta Garbo, Gary Cooper and all the brightest stars.  From now on, every time I watch one, I’ll have that thought.  And I’ll still have his friendship.  May God Bless our friend Billy and enjoy
his good company.                                                   Ed Cunningham  3/30/10

Visitation

Funeral Service

McGilley State Line Chapel

William Hunt

immediate need

Death has occurred or is near

plan ahead

Pre-plan a funeral or cremation

Plan a Funeral or Cremation Default Desktop

Find Obituaries and Services

Send Flowers

sympathy and etiquette

grief library

celebrations of life

What to Say When Someone Dies

Show Your Support

Sympathy and Grief

obituary

services

memories

Obit Detail

In the care of

share to facebook

share by email

share link

Share Obituary

ideas and resources

Sympathy and Grief Mobile

OBITUARY

William W. Hunt

October 10, 1934 – March 26, 2010

McGilley State Line Chapel

Show your support

Add a Memory

Share Obituary

Get Reminders

Services