Billie Parker Adams
Billie Parker Adams of Hodge, LA, passed away Saturday, Oct. 26 after a brief illness and a long life. She was an extraordinary lady full of faith, love, and strength whose generous sharing of her time and talents was a gift to all who knew her.
A devoted mother, grandmother and great grandmother, “Grandmama” was her preferred name, as her family was her greatest sense of pride and joy.
Billie was born Feb. 24, 1927, in Bunkie, LA, to William Henry Parker and Lucy Mae Parker. Upon graduating from Ville Platte High School, she enrolled at Louisiana State University leaving Baton Rouge with life-long friends and an Education degree she’d put to good use as a first-grade teacher for nearly 20 years.
She wed William Blanton Adams in 1947 and began married life on the Louisiana Delta in Lake Providence, later moving to Tallulah and then Algiers where she enjoyed the fresh seafood and time with her parents. She headed north with her family, settling in Jonesboro Hodge, a community she cherished and impacted until the end.
The list of church, charity and civic groups Billie gave her energy to is as long as the list of friends she made along the way. She was an active member of the Louisiana Conference of United Methodist Women, Jonesboro Study Guild, Beta Sigma Phi, Jackson Parish Garden Club and held the title of Jackson Parish Lady of the Year.
She was a gifted piano player and organist who entertained, inspired and comforted many during her years playing for the church. And with a love of musical theater, she could often be found driving her friends to Monroe’s Little Theater or on the front row of her grandchildren’s church musical performances.
A talented artist with a humble heart, she loved to create. Whether it was blankets knit for the homeless, Christmas ornaments for friends, oil painting and cross stitching with her granddaughters or crafting with her daughter Kate, it was never as much about the end result as it was the experience and memories made.
While she was a wonderful teacher, she was also a lifelong student with an insatiable curiosity and love of travel. While visiting her eldest son Butch in Europe, she enrolled in Montpellier University as part of a state program to learn French abroad and teach it in school. She was an avid reader of magazines, books of all genres, her daily devotional and Bible.
Billie loved her home where she kept her many treasures, each one with a story about a meaningful person or place. There she loved working in her yard, watching the birds and seeing her great grandchildren play with the same toys their parents had years before. She was the consummate hostess whose other-worldly cornbread dressing was quickly devoured every Thanksgiving and Christmas, but only after she sweetly said the blessing.
And while she was a saint, she was a spirited one who could be heard pulling for her LSU tigers, Peyton Manning and shooting her bb gun at the squirrels on her precious bird feeders. She never met an elephant she didn’t love or a camera she did.
And perhaps the most enviable attribute Billie possessed was her strength. Having endured the loss of her husband and later her son, she continued forward with resilience and without resentment. After a cancer diagnosis last year, she bravely chose to forgo treatment and continue living the life she loved with courage, independence, dignity and an unwavering faith in God, others and herself.
Billie is survived by her beloved children: Butch Adams of Hearne, TX; James Adams of Prescott, Arizona; and KateAdamsPerot(Petey) of Ruston; seven adored grandchildren: Nancy Adams Albin (Sean) of Marietta, Georgia; Maggie Adams Klein (Matt) of Atlanta, Georgia; Joey Perot (Jenny) of Katy, Texas; Josh Perot (Haley) of Ruston; Lindsey Adams of Prescott, Arizona (Erik); Leslie Adams of Phoenix, Arizona; and Rosser Adams of Oceanside, California; 12 cherished great grandchildren and lots of nieces, nephews, cousins and loving friends.
Billie is preceded in death by her husband Bill Adams, her son Doug Adams, her brother William “Buddy” Parker and many dear friends who she greatly missed.
A celebration of her very special life, very well lived, will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 31, 2019 at Jonesboro Hodge United Methodist Church with a visitation prior beginning at noon and interment following at Garden of Memories.
In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests contributions in Billie’s memory to St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital, a charity she supported.
