{"id":5382,"date":"2019-01-31T09:55:05","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T15:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/?p=5382"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:55:26","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:55:26","slug":"don-bilyeu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/2019\/01\/31\/don-bilyeu\/","title":{"rendered":"Don Bilyeu"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

(PLATE 1, above)”That’s me and old Mickey. He was about 15 when I moved to Neosho and I took him with me and kept him in the garage there. Came in one night and old Mickey wasn’t in there. I spent several days hunting for him but I never found him. Went off and died I guess.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don Bilyeu<\/h1>\n

by Gideon Pellegrino<\/p>\n

The December air greeted me as I stepped out of the car. As I walked towards the door, a sight of a candle-light service could be seen through the windows of the little white church. It was about five years ago on the Sunday before Christmas that I met him.<\/p>\n

He was sitting in a chair at the front of the church by a manger display, reading the Christmas story aloud. His figure was tall and slim and he was wearing a button-up shirt, blue jeans, and farm boots. I have never seen him wear anything different. I sat down and listened\u2026 the sound of his kind voice hummed in my ears, and the sight of the sweet twinkle in his dark-brown eyes made my heart happy.<\/p>\n

To anyone reading, this is only a glimpse of the life of a man I have come to know and love. To any one reading\u2026. I introduce to you, Don Bilyeu.<\/p>\n

I have known Don for a while now so sitting down with him for an interview was more like sitting down for just a regular Sunday afternoon chat. I pulled out a chair and got my stuff ready as he washed his hands (he\u2019d just come in from choring). Don\u2019s wife, Shirley, got me a glass of water and made some coffee as I petted their cat.<\/p>\n

Their house is the cozy type. It\u2019s the kind of house that you walk in and instantly feel at home. There are pictures of family members young and old on the walls and on the fireplace mantle. My favorite \u2014 a black-and-white photograph of the big oak tree in their front yard \u2014 is above the couch.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5386″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]West of the house is a big barn with horses and cows. I look out the dining room window while Don pours himself a cup of coffee. There is a small farm pond I had never noticed before.<\/p>\n

Don sits down with a smile and a chuckle and says, \u201cNow\u2026 Would you like me to tell you the truth?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, that would be nice!\u201d I laugh. And so then, the truth is where Don\u2019s story begins.<\/p>\n

It all started on Bull Creek, in Taney County Missouri, where he grew up. Don\u2019s parents, Ralph and Lola Bilyeu, had a boy before Don, named Loren, when they were in their early 20s.<\/p>\n

Loren died from dysentery when he was around two years and is buried in Cupp\u2019s Cemetery in Taney County, Missouri. The couple didn\u2019t have another child until they were much older. Don was born in 1938 and grew up a country boy, playing and fishing in Bull Creek and helping his parents farm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll never forget when I was a boy,\u201d he chuckles, \u201cMe and my cousin had rode our horses down Bull Creek and there was a drill well there but back then it wasn\u2019t nothing but 30-40 foot deep but it was still a good well. And there was a little ole rope and a can to dip water out with and we decided to stop and get us a drink.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5387″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]\u201cWe drank it and one of us happened to notice some hair in that cup and we thought\u2026 ehhhh that\u2019s not good. But we had already drank it you know? Well he had on a belt with a shiny buckle on it and the sun was shining bright so he took that belt off and used the reflection to where he could shine that down in that well and there was a dead \u2018possum floating on top of the water. The water tasted just fine to us and you know that possum was on the top of the water so we had to of just dipped right off the top of it but neither one of us got sick!\u201d<\/p>\n

Recovering from the \u2018possum story, I ask, \u201cCan you tell me a little bit more about your parents?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell my dad died when I was 14 or 15. He had a stroke. He was a big ole robust fella. We\u2019d eat old butchered hogs and my dad and I didn\u2019t like fat meat and they\u2019d feed the hogs till they were just so fat they could hardly walk. And my mother, she loved fat meat. She\u2019d give me and dad the leaner pieces and she\u2019d take the piece that had more fat on it. And we\u2019d cut the fat that was on ours off and she\u2019d reach over there and take her fork and get that fat meat that we had rejected and eat it.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5388″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]\u201cMy dad was 56 when he had his first stroke but he was pretty much bedfast from then on and then he had one when he was 59 that killed him. My mother lived to be 89 and she ate just like that till she died. So I guess it\u2019s not always what you eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Don\u2019s father died it was a year of a big drought across the Ozarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was terrible. You couldn\u2019t grow nothing. Cattle prices just hit bottom\u2026 everything did. I mean everything and you would think it would come up, but it didn\u2019t. Eggs weren\u2019t worth nothing. Hogs weren\u2019t worth nothing, Everything wasn\u2019t worth nothing. My dad used to say, \u2018You\u2019d send a calf to town to sell and then you\u2019d have to send a cow to pay the haul bill.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was bad and that\u2019s when I had to take over the farm \u2014 and you talk about a life-changing experience. My mother helped me but that was still kinda hard for me to get used to. Doing everything and being a growing boy, we about starved to death. We didn\u2019t actually starve but there definitely wasn\u2019t a decent amount of food to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a little country store called Chestnut Ridge General Store nearby. When Ralph had his first stroke, Don and Lola sold all their cows in an attempt to pay for the hospital bills. When they would go to the store to get food or clothes, the store owner would give it to them and never said a word or turned them down. The country store continued to help the sudden family of two when Don\u2019s father died.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5389″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]That year Don got a job at Emerson\u2019s Canning Factory in Reeds Spring. It was a tomato canning factory.<\/p>\n

There, amid the heat and steam, Don recalls how a number of women would stand around a conveyor belt, peeling tomatoes and using what was called a \u201ctomato spoon\u201d to core the produce.<\/p>\n

Each woman had a bucket and each bucket had a number on it. After the women peeled the tomatoes, they would put the fruit in their bucket and it would come around on the conveyer belt until it got to Don.<\/p>\n

Then Don would weigh the bucket and there was a lady sitting there and he would tell her what all the buckets weighed. The woman were payed by the pound of tomatoes peeled during the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funny thing was, the women, instead of scattering the buckets out they would send them around all at once and every now and then, I would miss one. And there was one woman who I guess I had missed her bucket a few times.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe jumped over that conveyor belt and came at me waving that core spoon and she picked me plum up \u2014 my feet off the ground \u2014 stuck that right there on my throat![\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5390″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]\u201cAnd she said, \u2018If my bucket comes around one more time, I\u2019m coming around and cutting your damn head off!\u2019 And so I said, \u2018So\u2026 uh\u2026 tell me\u2026 what\u2019s your number?\u2019 And there was a young fella, a boy about my age that would sit by me and empty the tomatoes into a canner. Anyways, he was a red-headed fella.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no telling what would get into those cans because the steam was so hot and there were no fans or air conditioning and his face would just be as red as fire all day long and sweat would just pour off of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut anyways, when she said that he just kinda sneered at her and she nailed him too and said, \u2018I\u2019ll take you out too.\u2019 And I looked at him and it just looked like one of those red thermometers going down. The color left him. He was as white as a sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The year before Don graduated high school he went to work on a boat dock in Rockaway Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI graduated in 1957. I had three really good buddies. From the time we were kids we were all ole cronies. Now I\u2019m the only crony left.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBranson was just a little ole town and so was Forsyth but Rockaway Beach was the place to go. I mean, it was the party place. Anything went. Anything went at Rockaway. So much that me and my buddy David went to Wichita.. wound up living on the streets for awhile until we got to where we got real affluent. And that\u2019s when I came back and went to [work at] Shepherd of the Hills. I still remember my first line.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5391″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]Don sits up really straight in his seat and then lets out a big long, \u201cHowwwwdyyyy!\u201d He then looks across the table as if talking to one of the characters in the play. \u201cH\u2019it\u2019s sure\u2019 dry. Ah don\u2019t think h\u2019it\u2019s ever gonna rain.\u201d<\/p>\n

He settles back into his seat and I hear Shirley putting away\u00a0 pots and pans in the kitchen. I look down at my notes and already knowing what I want to ask next.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did you and Shirley meet and what year was it?\u201d<\/p>\n

After sitting there for a moment, Don yells to Shirley in the kitchen. \u201cShirley, what year did I come to your house first?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c1960,\u201d she hollers back.<\/p>\n

\u201c1960,\u201d he repeats with a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd how did you guys meet?\u201d I ask again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell\u2026 me an\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no, no,\u201d Shirley says from the kitchen. \u201cIt was \u201959. Because you moved home in \u201960\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, then it was \u201959. It was in the summer time.. I think\u2026\u201d Don is stroking his mustache thoughtfully.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was May,\u201d Shirley answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, yeah, in May,\u201d Don says with a sweet smile. He sits there with that smile on his face and then continues, \u201cThe spring of \u201959. This coworker of mine, well, he was my cousin and we worked together. He was dating Shirley\u2019s little sister. He and I had been driving around and stuff and I\u2019ve always thought it was a set up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said to me, \u2018You know, I gotta come back here and pick Lena up. So let\u2019s just go pick her up now and save me a trip.\u2019[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5392″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]\u201cWell we did\u2026 and there Shirley was. I hit her up for a date, couldn\u2019t persuade her to go, but after awhile, she finally agreed just to shut me up I guess. Then time went on and she wouldn\u2019t go out with me anymore for quite awhile and I just kept nagging on her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShirley, how long did that go on?\u201d<\/p>\n

She laughs and answers, \u201cProbably a month or so, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know either,\u201d he chuckles, \u201cThree or four months maybe. But anyways, I finally wore her down and she went out with me. And I knew right off the bat that she was the woman for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that moment I let out a big girly sigh. \u201cYeah,\u201d he says, \u201cI knew right off the bat\u2026 she was gonna be.. she was the woman for me. But it went on about two or three years before we finally married.\u201d<\/p>\n

They got married in June of 1962 and had two little girls. Now they have four grandkids and seven great-grandchildren with the eighth on the way.<\/p>\n

And so I\u2019ll say once again, to anyone reading\u2026 this is Don Bilyeu. This Sunday morning \u2014 in the same little white church I met him in, in the second to last pew \u2014 I will see Don Bilyeu.<\/p>\n

Always grateful. Always kind. And one of the sweetest souls you will ever meet. I ask one last question before the interview draws to a close. \u201cIf you could give any advice about life, what would it be?\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5393″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]A brief pause. And then Don says quietly, \u201cJust live everyday to its fullest. Don\u2019t wait\u2026 Don\u2019t wait. Live everyday to its fullest and be a friend and you\u2019ll have friends. Treat everybody like you would want them to treat you. You know? The golden rule. If I could do my life all over I\u2019d do a lot of changing knowing what I know now.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, people are very important. Don\u2019t ever take anybody for granted. You know, there\u2019s a little bit of good in the worst of us, and a little bit of bad in the best of us. So it all balances out, I guess. I tell people that life\u2019s been good to me and I can tell by the way they look at me that they\u2019re thinking, \u2018You old ignorant hillbilly, you ain\u2019t got nothin and then you up and say that?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut God\u2019s been good. He\u2019s been good, and I appreciate it. I certainly didn\u2019t deserve this. But that\u2019s just God\u2019s amazing grace\u2026 and I\u2019m thankful for it.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] (PLATE 1, above)”That’s me and old Mickey. He was about 15 when I moved to Neosho and I took him with me and kept him in the garage there. Came in one night and old Mickey wasn’t in there. I spent several days hunting for him but I never found him. Went off and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[937,582,581],"tags":[661,858,860,859,856,861,863,862,647,541,857,712,438],"class_list":["post-5382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ozarkwriters","category-sotoarchive","category-sotofeature","tag-branson","tag-bull-creek","tag-chestnut-ridge","tag-cupps-cemetery","tag-don-bilyeu","tag-emersons-canning-factory","tag-forsyth","tag-reeds-spring","tag-rockaway-beach","tag-shepherd-of-the-hills","tag-shirley-bilyeu","tag-smyrna-baptist-church","tag-taney-county","category-937","category-582","category-581","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5382"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5406,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5382\/revisions\/5406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}