Over
the past two days the Bryan-College
Station Eagle has carried the obituary of former Brazos County Commissioner
Billy E. Beard, who passed away last month.
The obituary, which also appears on the Hillier Funeral Home website,
reads as follows:
Billy E. Beard, 96, of Deming,
NM, and formerly of Bryan, went to be with his Lord on Saturday, January 18,
2014. A time for family to receive
friends will be from 9:30 am to 10:30 am with a funeral service beginning at
10:30 am on Saturday, February 8, 2014 at Bethel Lutheran Church, 4421
Boonville Rd., Bryan, TX, with Pastor Randall Bard officiating. Interment will follow at Rest-Ever Cemetery.
Billy was born on December 28,
1917; to Lena May (Walker) and Joseph Aaron Beard in Liberty, Texas. He graduated from Liberty High School. He served in the Army Air Corps from
1941-1945. In 1942 he married Edna
Catherine Williams. Billy attended Hinds
Junior College, and was admitted to the School of Veterinary Medicine at Texas
A&M in 1947. He served as an
appraiser for the Texas Veteran’s Land Board, ran for Texas Agricultural
Commissioner in 1952. Billy farmed and
ranched in Brazos County in the late 50’s, drilled for oil in Guatemala until
1962, owned Beard Pump Service from 1962-82, and served as Brazos County
Commissioner from 1980-88, after which he retired to Deming, NM where he raised
horses, pigs, quail, rabbits, emus, gardened and had a small pistachio orchard.
Billy was an active member of
First United Methodist Church, Bryan. He was also involved with the Historical
Society-Boonville Cemetery, Keep Brazos Beautiful, Humane Society, Shriners,
Kiwanis, American Legion, VFW, Lions Club, and loved to hunt and fish.
He is preceded in death by his
wife Edna, and son Billy E. Beard, Jr.
Billy leaves behind his loving
wife of nine years, Maria J. Beard; a son, Robert and daughter-in-law Fran; two
stepdaughters, Erica and Marisol, two stepsons, Angel and Chano; and eight
grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be
sent to Hospice Brazos Valley.
While
Billy was not a member of the Brazos Heritage Society, he certainly was a
supporter of its mission. In June of
1982 Billy, who also served on the Brazos County Historical Commission, took on
the task of saving the Boonville Cemetery, which had become a “countywide
disgrace” due to neglect.
An
editorial appearing in the Eagle on
June 23, 1982, described this historic cemetery in these words:
Grave stones and markers have
been upended – some broken – by vandals; weeds and tall grass have overrun the
facility; the lack of management over the years makes it impossible for anyone
to know just how many people are buried in the 10-acre facility, since many
have been buried without any type of marker designating their grave.
Because
of his interest in preserving this historic cemetery, Billy recruited the
support of the two District Judges – Tom McDonald and Bradley Smith – and the
Brazos County Adult Probation Department to require probationers ordered to
perform community service as part of their sentence to work in the
cemetery. In addition, he got the county
commissioners to agree to fence the cemetery.
A
subsequent editorial appearing in the Eagle
on September 10, 1982, commends Commissioner Beard and notes certain
accomplishments in the preservation of this piece of Brazos County history:
Slowly but surely things are
looking up for the future maintenance and care of Boonville Cemetery.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Billy
Beard, the county’s two district judges and the Adult Probation Department have
developed a plan for cleaning up the historic 140-year-old cemetery and
maintaining it on an ongoing basis – all at little or no cost to county
taxpayers.
Beard deserves much of the
credit for instigating the project and getting the plan beyond the discussion
stage. Like many people familiar with
the cemetery, he had been concerned for some time about the high weeds, broken
tombstones and generally dilapidated condition of one of the county’s oldest
landmarks. Since the cemetery falls
within his county precinct – and since no one else had stepped forward to
maintain it – Beard several months ago decided to see what he could do to bring
the facility up to par.
After Beard proposed the idea
last June, county commissioners agreed to fence the cemetery as a first step
toward cleaning it up. While the first
set of bids received for that project were rejected because commissioners felt
them too high, a second set of bids are to be opened in about two weeks and
work is expected to get underway shortly thereafter. In preparation for the fencing, Beard and his
Precinct 3 crew have cleared a fence line around the cemetery.
But perhaps the most promising
development has been the agreement between Beard, the two district judges and
the Adult Probation Department which will allow persons convicted of a crime
and granted probation to complete their community service requirement by
working at the cemetery. While several
details remain to be ironed out – such as determining the need for liability
insurance, assigning a supervisor to monitor the work, and developing a
specific work schedule – the plan appears to be on track. An added benefit of the plan is that the
local courts can now be certain that there will be enough sanctioned community
service work available to justify including that stipulation when sentence is
passed in criminal cases.
Beard also hopes to involve the
county’s historical society in the project, and plans to seek assistance from
landscaping experts at Texas A&M University in developing a site plan for
the cemetery.
The public should begin seeing
the fruits of all this labor within weeks, and the community as a whole will be
the better for it. Beard, the judges,
commissioners court, Dan Beto and others who have been involved in developing
the plan are to be commended for their efforts.
The approach taken in addressing this problem is a fine example of what
can be accomplished with cooperation, creative thinking, and a little elbow
grease.
Because
of Billy’s leadership, his interest in the Boonville Cemetery, and his ability to generate
support for a worthy cause, we are now able to take pride in this historic
landmark. We all owe Billy a debt of
gratitude. Billy was a dedicated public servant who has left a lasting
legacy in Brazos County.
Our
deepest sympathies are extended to Maria, Bob, and Fran, and to other members
of the Beard family.
Dan
Beto, President
