Bill R. Palmer

Billy Ray Palmer, known to his buddies as Billy Ray, was born November 3rd, 1945 in San Antonio, Texas. His mother, Fay Palmer, traveled from Illinois by bus in her ninth month of pregnancy so he would be born a “Texan”, and that’s what he was through and through. Being the son of Master Sergeant, Allen Palmer, Bill attended many different schools all over the country, but everywhere he went he played baseball. Bill graduated from Killeen High School in 1963 and then attended Rice University on an academic and athletic scholarship, where he played both baseball and basketball. After graduating from Rice in 1968, Bill was drafted by the Cleveland Indians organization as a pitcher. He also attended law school at the University of Houston, Bates School of Law on the off season. After finishing law school, Bill worked as an oil and gas attorney for Houston Natural Gas, Valero Energy, Tejas, and Copano Oil Company. Bill enjoyed golf, cars, shopping, taking his family to the Astros games, and watching the O’Reilly Factor. Despite his intimidating exterior, Bill had an enormous heart and loved animals; he worked with animal rescue groups to foster abandon puppies until they could find a good home. However, the real love of his life, were his children, of which he was extremely proud. He is survived by his wife of 24 years Kakie Palmer, sons Jim and Michael, daughter Laura, sister Pam Palmer and niece Kelly Keel.