Billy Donald Mote
Graham Leader (TX) - Saturday, January 6, 2018
Billy Donald Mote, known to most as Bill, died Jan. 1, 2018 at the age of 94. It's believed he fought to make the new year so he could provide one last pension check for O.J., his wife of 74 years. If so, it would have been in keeping with the way he lived his life.
The son of sharecroppers, Roy Dietz and Rosa Ethel Mote, Billy left Young County to find work in California in 1944 with 20 bucks in his pocket and a suitcase in his hand. The love of his life, Olga Jean, who he had married in secret so she could finish high school, joined him in California a few months later when her father dropped her at the train station and said goodbye in a huff. He, for one, was not impressed with the young Mr. Mote's prospects. In time, that would change. B e c a u s e while Billy started with nothing, he did not intend to stay that way. More i n d u s t r i o u s than lucky, Billy worked hard his entire life, and on the day he shuffled off this mortal coil, his estate included three houses in California, a fourth in Texas, a farm and a ranch.
While most people would agree that possessions are not the measure of a man, for Billy, it kind of was. The product of the Great Depression when shoes were a luxury and porches doubled as bedrooms, Billy was sure that hard times were never that far away. The one piece of advice he gave his granddaughter upon her graduation from college this past year was, "Never sell anything."
He never did.
Billy graduated from Newcastle High School in 1943. He was a member of the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 230 for over 61 years and a longtime member of the Silver Gate Masonic Lodge in San Diego. He was a welder, a teacher, an artist and a perfectionist.
He is survived by his wife, Olga, his daughter, Linda, sons Brent and Kevin, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Services are pending.
Father, son, husband, brother - he is already missed.
Graham Leader (TX) - Saturday, January 6, 2018
Billy Donald Mote, known to most as Bill, died Jan. 1, 2018 at the age of 94. It's believed he fought to make the new year so he could provide one last pension check for O.J., his wife of 74 years. If so, it would have been in keeping with the way he lived his life.
The son of sharecroppers, Roy Dietz and Rosa Ethel Mote, Billy left Young County to find work in California in 1944 with 20 bucks in his pocket and a suitcase in his hand. The love of his life, Olga Jean, who he had married in secret so she could finish high school, joined him in California a few months later when her father dropped her at the train station and said goodbye in a huff. He, for one, was not impressed with the young Mr. Mote's prospects. In time, that would change. B e c a u s e while Billy started with nothing, he did not intend to stay that way. More i n d u s t r i o u s than lucky, Billy worked hard his entire life, and on the day he shuffled off this mortal coil, his estate included three houses in California, a fourth in Texas, a farm and a ranch.
While most people would agree that possessions are not the measure of a man, for Billy, it kind of was. The product of the Great Depression when shoes were a luxury and porches doubled as bedrooms, Billy was sure that hard times were never that far away. The one piece of advice he gave his granddaughter upon her graduation from college this past year was, "Never sell anything."
He never did.
Billy graduated from Newcastle High School in 1943. He was a member of the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 230 for over 61 years and a longtime member of the Silver Gate Masonic Lodge in San Diego. He was a welder, a teacher, an artist and a perfectionist.
He is survived by his wife, Olga, his daughter, Linda, sons Brent and Kevin, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Services are pending.
Father, son, husband, brother - he is already missed.
Billy Donald Mote
Graham Leader (TX) - Saturday, January 6, 2018
Billy Donald Mote, known to most as Bill, died Jan. 1, 2018 at the age of 94. It's believed he fought to make the new year so he could provide one last pension check for O.J., his wife of 74 years. If so, it would have been in keeping with the way he lived his life.
The son of sharecroppers, Roy Dietz and Rosa Ethel Mote, Billy left Young County to find work in California in 1944 with 20 bucks in his pocket and a suitcase in his hand. The love of his life, Olga Jean, who he had married in secret so she could finish high school, joined him in California a few months later when her father dropped her at the train station and said goodbye in a huff. He, for one, was not impressed with the young Mr. Mote's prospects. In time, that would change. B e c a u s e while Billy started with nothing, he did not intend to stay that way. More i n d u s t r i o u s than lucky, Billy worked hard his entire life, and on the day he shuffled off this mortal coil, his estate included three houses in California, a fourth in Texas, a farm and a ranch.
While most people would agree that possessions are not the measure of a man, for Billy, it kind of was. The product of the Great Depression when shoes were a luxury and porches doubled as bedrooms, Billy was sure that hard times were never that far away. The one piece of advice he gave his granddaughter upon her graduation from college this past year was, "Never sell anything."
He never did.
Billy graduated from Newcastle High School in 1943. He was a member of the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 230 for over 61 years and a longtime member of the Silver Gate Masonic Lodge in San Diego. He was a welder, a teacher, an artist and a perfectionist.
He is survived by his wife, Olga, his daughter, Linda, sons Brent and Kevin, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Services are pending.
Father, son, husband, brother - he is already missed.
Graham Leader (TX) - Saturday, January 6, 2018
Billy Donald Mote, known to most as Bill, died Jan. 1, 2018 at the age of 94. It's believed he fought to make the new year so he could provide one last pension check for O.J., his wife of 74 years. If so, it would have been in keeping with the way he lived his life.
The son of sharecroppers, Roy Dietz and Rosa Ethel Mote, Billy left Young County to find work in California in 1944 with 20 bucks in his pocket and a suitcase in his hand. The love of his life, Olga Jean, who he had married in secret so she could finish high school, joined him in California a few months later when her father dropped her at the train station and said goodbye in a huff. He, for one, was not impressed with the young Mr. Mote's prospects. In time, that would change. B e c a u s e while Billy started with nothing, he did not intend to stay that way. More i n d u s t r i o u s than lucky, Billy worked hard his entire life, and on the day he shuffled off this mortal coil, his estate included three houses in California, a fourth in Texas, a farm and a ranch.
While most people would agree that possessions are not the measure of a man, for Billy, it kind of was. The product of the Great Depression when shoes were a luxury and porches doubled as bedrooms, Billy was sure that hard times were never that far away. The one piece of advice he gave his granddaughter upon her graduation from college this past year was, "Never sell anything."
He never did.
Billy graduated from Newcastle High School in 1943. He was a member of the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 230 for over 61 years and a longtime member of the Silver Gate Masonic Lodge in San Diego. He was a welder, a teacher, an artist and a perfectionist.
He is survived by his wife, Olga, his daughter, Linda, sons Brent and Kevin, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Services are pending.
Father, son, husband, brother - he is already missed.
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