Billy Patty

Billy Don Patty, of Wentzville, MO, passed away Friday, September 17, 2021, at the age of 93. Beloved husband of Ruth Marie Patty; cherished son of the late William Caney and Willa Lucille Patty. Devoted father of Mary Ellen (Joseph H. Felchlin III) Felchlin, John Michael (Beth Ann Roosa) Patty, Dolores "Dee" M. (Donald) Twillman, and Ruth Ann (Wayne) Baldwin; loving grandfather of Joseph (Cam) Felchlin, Michele Hunt, David Patty, Chris Patty, Michael (Andrea) Twillman, Jennifer Herndon, Sam Schnurbusch, and Addie (Chris Poole) Schnurbusch; treasured great-grandfather of Ashley (Mike) Lines, Brianna  Martin, Elizabeth  Felchlin, Willie Felchlin, Gavin Twillman, Caiden Twillman, and Sadie Baldwin; great-great grandchildren, Cadi and Gabe Lines; dear brother of the late Bacil Patty, the late Wilbur Patty, the late Marion Patty, and the late Evelyn Patty. 

Here Comes Billy

September 21, 2021

1. Early Family & Kid Times

Billy’s father Will was an accomplished rider who in his youth performed skilled maneuvers such as handstands and sliding under and around and back up in the saddle of a horse at full gallop. He was a very good carpenter who built his family’s furniture. A life-long disappointment occurred when Will who was very good and innovative blacksmith denied patent design for heavy truck and bus leaf springs. A dishonest supervisor then fired Will misappropriated the design, won the patent rights and became a wealthy man. Will taught his 3 sons how to shoe horses, design and build small house trailers, horse trailers, custom truck bodies and temper steel. On one occasion he was tasked with the expert tempering of 2 dump truck loads of 6 foot long bolt wrenches whose previous failures had caused the death of 2 Grand River Dam workmen. No failures occurred after Will carefully reworked each of those massive tools. That hard working and generous man, who fed and paid others first was regular at Ruthie’s father’s Piggly Wiggly store for an after work glass of 5 cent beer. He married married Willa in 1906 when she was 15 years old.

Billy’s Mother Willa was: -a strong and hardy 1897 prairie woman from Nebraska who arrived in Oklahoma by wagon during one of the highly contested wild west “Sooner” waves involving premature land claims. She married Will in part to escape a harsh young life harnessed at times harnessed to her father’s sod busting plow. She was a multitalented, multitasking mother of 5 children. The loss one child Marion at 28 months sent her into a deep grief that greatly motivated Billy to make up for that loss. Willa was a celebrated baker of pies and cinnamon rolls, owner and operator of several cafés, laundress, and benefactor of those in need. She was a woman of deep faith in God and the soap operas who tried wave Billy off from joining the Catholics, the” worst fornicators of all” she believed; she did ultimately respect his choice. That salt of the earth sod-buster with an original peppery style believed that the challenge of a hard life was “no hill for a high stepper.”

Brother Bacil deserves special mention a role-model for Billy. He was a competitive Golden Gloves boxer in St. Louis. Billy idealized his older brother for qualities such as legendary strength, stamina, marital fidelity and being a self-made businessman. Bacil was a beloved community personality, a successful tire-store owner who would deliver 200 pound blocks for ice up flights of stairs as prelude to his evening boxing training work out. He was a survivor of an infamous Greyhound Bus Terminal explosion in St. Louis. After a year of hospitalization for severe burns and the loss of a lung he was attacked by two men hired by his business partner. Bacil killed one, was arrested, tried and acquitted.

Wilber was a talented butcher and barber who lived in the shadow of both Bacil and Billy. Alcoholism was a life-long problem for him.

Evelyn Billy’s favorite younger sister who was a high school rodeo queen, married to a fireman named Jack and the mother of Carl and Bill.

Jigs was a fierce, favorite, & loyal canine companion. A fighter just like Billy.

2. School Days

Angry that he was not old enough to attend Kindergarten would block the neighborhood path to school and fight anyone who dared cross him until he received a lesson from the hard knock of life school from a boy named Peanuts. Later after becoming friends, Billy fought against several racist hecklers who derisively threw peanuts at him as he danced on the sidewalk to earn money. Peanuts went on to become a neurosurgeon in New York City. He excelled in math, science, and English.

Billie was an honor student, boxer, baseball catcher, thespian, tutor and a reporter for the high school newspaper.

3. Work Life

Billy’s work life started at age 4-5 years old carrying pails of water from the hand-pumped outside spigot to fill a large cauldron and then building a fire to heat the water so his mother could earn money for the family doing laundry and ironing for others. From ages 6 to 9 he worked in his father’s Blacksmith shop cutting and fitting wagon wheel spokes between the felloe and the hub, then heat shrinking a steel band tightly around the wooden wheel. He left the shop at age 9, disappointed that his father paid his partner’s son a nickel per week but was unable to pay Billy.

Billy promptly found employment selling and delivering morning newspapers, cleaning the movie theatre, and later selling refreshments and running the film projector. In addition, he worked at the Silver Moon Café bussing tables and washing dishes after the last Saturday night show concluded. One busy night the cook and waitress failed to arrive and Billy single-handedly cooked, bussed, and accepted customer payments after stacking two layers of pop cases behind the counter so he could reach the grill and cash register. When the owner arrived at 6 AM Sunday morning he found a weary boy still washing dishes. In disbelief he went to the register and counted over 400 dollars in the till, fired the 2 MIA employees, and made Billy the night manager thereafter.

Billy also worked his way up from selling newspapers for the Vinita Journal to cleaning up and re-melting the lead type castings to eventually writing and composing the advertising layouts. One night, late and alone, learning how to clean and operate the big complicated lineotype printing machine, it dissembled. He was devastated but also motivated to reassemble it. When Mr. Hightower the owner opened the shop and inquired, Billy told his what he had done. Due to his honesty and initiative his responsibilities expanded to include working with the complex machine. He became a certified journeyman printer by the time he graduated high school.

The combination of projectionist, night manager, ad copy layout and printer during middle and high school allowed him to purchase a complete dining room and bedroom set of furniture for his mother. He recalled that when his father saw the new furniture, he wept. It was the only time Billy saw his father cry.

Before enlisting in the U.S. Navy at age 18 he purchased and opened Pat’s Café in the alley across the street from the Journal office because he wanted his parents to have an income while he was away. Upon his return 2 years later he purchased the Silver Moon café but closed that shortly before moving to St. Louis.

4. Play time

Childhood play time for Billy included early Sunday morning fishing and pan frying the catch with his friend Johnny. He sewed and enjoyed embroidery and cross stich. He wrote poetry since the age of 8. His published books of poetry include: Learning to Trust the Tiny Voice of God (2017), In the Closets of Our Minds There is Love (2019), and Loving Others (2019). He composed several songs including a romantic one entitled, naturally – If You Love Like I Love. In high school he played baseball as a catcher. Like his admired brother Bacil he boxed in high school and later in the U.S. Navy. His high school football career came to a full stop when his father Will found out -- possibly out of fear that Billy would be injured. The card game Canasta, shooting pool and snooker, and the domino game Mexican Train were favorites. In his 80’s Billy took up wine making and received special family encouragement to bottle large quantities of his chocolate raspberry desert wine.

5. Car Time

At age 16 years old Billy rebuilt a non-running 1932 coupe that his father gave him. With coaching from a mechanic he rebuilt the engine, honed the cylinders and installed new rings, tires, tie rods, reupholstered the seats with wild leopard print cloth & replaced the headliner. When it finally started and ran the men said to take her for a drive. Despite his trepidation off he went, scared, proud, and alone in his learning to drive. Later at 26 he rebuilt the automatic transmission in a 1951 Studebaker after a factory recall/ rebuild failed. Billy was a mechanical natural when it involved troubleshooting, repairing, brake work, carburetors, electrical problems, or body work.

6. Romancing Ruthie

Billie’s high school sweetheart Ruthie was his one and only true love and companion for 79 years. And the same was true for Ruthie in her love for Billy. After 22 months of active duty in the Navy, Billy told Ruthie of his opportunity to go to the Annapolis Naval Academy on a full scholarship. She did not want to wait and that led to his engineering an honorable discharge, a speedy trip from Maine to Oklahoma, and a marriage proposal. Their devotion to each other and their family was central to who they have always been. They completed and complimented each other in myriad of ways: emotionally, intellectually, socially and creatively. Their faith was a profound source of shared meaning, moral clarity, loving compassion and active service to others.

7. Navy Days

Billy joined the Navy in 1945 with the intention of becoming a pilot or a submariner. Instead, he attended language school for Japanese and Russian and became a decoder (“dothead”) in the radio intelligence service.

During boot camp his defense of a mistreat fellow private resulted in a confrontation and subsequent court martial of the perpetrating sergeant. He tuned Harley Davidson motorcycles, learned the basics of photography, played chess, won a 1936 Ford coupe in a poker game. He was awarded a scholarship to the Annapolis Naval Academy for his intellectual and boxing prowess.

8. Builder Man – Business Man

Growing up in a Blacksmith shop exposed Billy to a variety skills and creative ways of thinking about mechanical and construction matters. He spanned the successive eras from horse and buggy to mechanization, electronics, the nuclear age, semiconductors, computers and internet enabled smart cell phones. It was daunting to adapt to these innovations. Regarding his architectural design work, the tools of the trade he used were a drawing board with a moveable right-angle ruler, triangles, and mechanical pencils. No CAD program for Billy. Visualization in the “mind’s eye” was the key to success for Billy. If he could see it mentally he could build it.

His first renovation occurred in 1948. Newly married and working in St. Louis as a printer, he remodeled a garage. During the next 3 years he purchased an apartment building, bought a home, and remodeled a cow shed - chicken coup structure into a rental property. Anticipating a recall to naval intelligence because of the Korean War, the young couple sold their properties and moved to Oklahoma City for Ruthie to be with her mother. While waiting, Billy bought and remodeled a house, took a job as the editor of the Oklahoma Home Builder Magazine, and enrolled as a student at Oklahoma City University.

In 1953 Billy purchased and remodeled an old motel and gas station outside of their hometown, Vinita. Beside it he built a beautiful new 20 unit Park Hills Motel that was very successful until a combination of an animal anthrax outbreak and a flood closed the highway to summer traffic. Unable to afford the loan payments, the motel was sadly sold. The family moved into town for a year while Billy was rehired as the night foreman at Christian Board of Publications in St. Louis.

In St. Louis Billy found a house he could buy for no money down with a vacant lot included. He proceeded to single-handedly build an all brick, full basement home on the vacant lot. In 1961 he turned down the lucrative position of Plant Superintendent at the Christian Board on the advice of his parish priest who felt it would promote a religion other than Catholicism. With that setback Billy was determined to become a land developer and subdivision builder to avoid ever again being told how not to make a living for his family. After proceeding to convince the president of a local Savings and Loan to provide development and construction loans, he bought a 14 acre hill parcel in Bridgeton where he engineered the earthmoving and utilities installation, and custom designed 34 homes, despite opposition from a local developer-controlled zoning board. He moved his family into one of the display models where they lived until 2001.

Parlaying his success from that first Spring Gardens subdivision, he purchased 100 acres of raw land in St. Charles in 1963 and created Briarcliff Subdivision. He proceeded to build 90 some homes, a 16 unit apartment building and 9 duplexes until a severe economic recession stopped new home sales. By December 1967 Billy was $300,000.00 in debt to his material suppliers, contractors, and subcontractors. After a dark afternoon of the soul, rather than declare bankruptcy and out of concern for his workmen, Billy conferred with Ruthie. He went to local banker Ed Hudspeth who believed in him and gave him a personal loan for $50,000 dollars using Billy’s home and personal signature as collateral. He made partial payments to the neediest of his associates until he could find a way to pay off the rest of the debt.

Within a few months Billy, through his Urban Realty Company, was approached to be the broker on the sale of two large farms. Through those commissions and several others he was debt free by the end of the year.

In the early 1970’s Billy entered the arena of the FHA 235 government building program for subsidized housing for poor families in the Harvester area. Despite a fire-bombed office, slashed tires, and car bomb threats Billy prevailed and completed the subdivision.

In the late 1960’s Dick and Pete Twillman asked Billy for help in settling 3 serious and pressing legal problems. In exchange for his commission in successfully settling all of their legal issues he agreed to take over ownership of their Water and Waste Utilities Company and set out to obtain the franchise to provide sewerage service for all of St. Charles County and water and sewerage service in Lincoln County.

The timing fortuitously coincided with federal and state clean water statutes and laws that were under consideration. Billy, participating in numerous hearings, contributed influential content to some of final legislative initiatives in Missouri. Water and Waste Utilities Company oversaw the engineering, development, and operations of the expansion. Billy walked every creek in the water shed area, studied topographical maps, and did the engineering and design of the gravity fed, pressurized trunk lines, lift stations, and one million gallon treatment plant sized for a 25-year population increase. After assisting in the election campaigns of two Judges a bond issue was passed to fund the purchase of Water and Waste Utilities Company and ownership was transferred to St. Charles County.

Some 15 years later Billy received a call from an attorney representing the sewer company offering to negotiate a large dollar amount price for the legal permission to use his engineering plans for the future expansion of the facilities. It seems these plans had initially been rejected because Billy was not a certified civil engineer. When their own engineers were unable to solve several vexing design problems, necessitated by the urgent need to expand their system due to a significant population increase, they reluctantly reviewed Billy’s engineering design and realized he had presciently anticipated design solutions that eluded them. Billy was tickled by the limitations of what it meant to be a certified civil engineer and closed the negation session with the attorney saying “when he sold the company he sold the expansion plans as well.”

Throughout his career Billy integrated family and business affairs while testing the limits of child labor laws. Mary provided secretarial service and apartment management with Joe’s help. John from an early age assisted with various construction activities, apartment management and maintenance and easement negotiations. Dee spent a number of years performing organizational and secretarial support and title searches, while Donnie played a major role in the expansion and operation of Water and Waste Utilities Company. Ruth Ann contributed rental house painting, materials, and map preparation for clean water legislation advocacy.

Billy’s final personal building project occurred in 2001 on 4 acres adjacent to Dee and Don in Wentzville. He designed and built this home for Ruthie with an abundance of volunteered labor from various grateful contractors he had worked with over the years.

9. Spiritual Matters

Billy was spiritually led, fed, and steadfast in his Spirit-filled life. Throughout his personal and professional life, regardless of success or failure, he always trusted the Lord for guidance.

At age 5 years old he pumped and carried water to fill the large black clothes washing cauldron in the back yard where his mother took in other’s clothing for extra income. He built heating fire as his father had taught him. Later as his mother hung freshly washed clothes on the backyard line she set his spiritual and humanitarian course in motion. He recalled her saying “Billy remember that God is the author of Life and the Giver of all good things, so when you pray and talk to Him ask for everything you need to help others live in his Love. He will bless you beyond your fondest dreams.” His admiration of his mother’s spirit and hard work, taught him to reach out to help others before thinking of himself.

Another early memory involved the beginning 9-year-old Billy’s searching attendance at 7 or 8 churches in Vinita until eventually he found the Holy Ghost Catholic Church. He chose fidelity to that church when during a conversation with the parish priest Father Kramer, Billy noticed several layers of cardboard covering the hole in the sole of the Father’s shoe. Billy trusted that man’s unspoken vow of poverty and all later words of guidance as well. He received baptism and confirmation at age 18 an hour before he left for an El Paso train bound for U.S. Navy boot camp.

In 1977, at age 49, Billy earned a B.A. degree in Sacred Theology with a minor in Counseling. Following a midlife reorientation he and Ruthie attended a spiritual direction school in Pecos, New Mexico. At the behest of Archbishop Feoreza, Billy was asked to preach a mission at a local fairgrounds. That was the beginning of 7 years of Mission work discussing the general theme of spirituality and sexuality. Through the encouragement of life -long friend Father Sam Holmsey, Billy and Ruth served as missionaries giving Family Life seminars in Mexico, Texas, and on Lakota Native American reservations in South Dakota.

During the early 1980’s Billy and Ruthie established their home in Bridgeton as The Light of Christ House of Prayer. From that home base God’s Gang, Missions in Motion (evangelists) and Mission Planning grew and solidified. It also provided a Christian lending library for books and tapes and served as a Depository for charitable gifts, clothing and toys. The popular God’s Gang adolescent group met for over 10 years and provided an open therapeutic forum that promoted spiritual and psychosocial development with Billy’s nutritional support of unlimited quantities of soda, chips and candy. During this era Billy and Ruthie sponsored a pre-teen prayer group at St. Lawrence the Martyr Church where they were active members of a Charismatic Prayer group and together conducted counseling in their home to anyone in need. Billy was also an active member and speaker in the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship. He directed a group of lay preachers who gave retreats, days of renewal, and missions. Later he and a core group of spiritual activists provided ACTS retreats. For years Billy and Ruthie provided holy communion outreach for dozens of incapacitated Catholics. Later still, Billy’s participation in the Knights of Columbus eventually led to a 4th degree advancement.

10. Food Pantry

In 1975 Billy took up the operation of Our Lady of Perpetual Help food pantry and incorporated it into a 501 C-3 company. He expanded its service area to provide assistance for more families while convincing grocery store owners to help by donating greater quantities of food. At some point in early 1998 Billy began fund raising for the purchase of an old car assembly building in the impoverished inner city of St. Louis. He had been inspired by Myrtle Howell’s work with the poor and had proposed the construction of a new food pantry facility through an affiliation with the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Billy hired Frank Wurm and local neighborhood residents and God’s Gang volunteers to help complete the renovation of the building in 1999 at a cost of $193,000. Always the innovator Billy’s solution to removing a heavy roof top I beam was to slide short pieces of pipe under the beam, gather a team of men off the street, and roll it with enough velocity to end its 4-story nose-down drop with enough momentum to fall away rather than back toward the old brick building.

In the year 2000 Our Lady of Perpetual Help Food Pantry served about 260 people per month and approximately 1000 people at the annual Thanksgiving Day event, thanks to volunteers such as Myrtle and her associates, father Mike, God’s Gang, the food collectors, Vianney Boys School, family members, and many others rallied to the cause by Billy. By 2009 with the help of Billy’s ongoing financial support and other many generous donors such Mr. Eric Steinman, Our Lady of Perpetual Help was a thriving non-profit corporation that offered a wide range of social services including: providing groceries and household items to over 7500 families (150 per week) and another 7000 each year by supplying a dozen other pantries with food, furniture and monetary assistance. In addition, computer training courses, vision exams, and medical check-ups were offered weekly. Emergency assistance and guidance for applying for Human Development Corporation (HDC) was also offered. 100% of the donations went directly to serving the less fortunate, not paying salaries.

Transitioning from his late 80’s into his 90’s Billy gradually stepped away from his ongoing direct involvement with the Pantry operation that has continued to grow, secure in his belief and partly through his stewardship, it was in dedicated competent hands and would continue the mission of feeding the poor.

11. Health Matters

From ages 5 through 7 Billy experienced severe tonsillitis every Winter. The swelling was so severe that the family doctor would insert a glass tube in his throat to keep his airway open. Surgery was not recommended nor performed until he was 12 years old. In the interim the doctor also recommended orange juice laced with baking soda and spending time outdoors. Billy remembered laying on a blanket in the back yard while his mother washed and ironed the laundry she took for hours. He studied the changing cloud forms, trees, wind, birds, and various sounds of nature. At age 7 while gazing at the clouds Billy had a vision. He saw God leading a procession of angels and saints across the horizon. He assumed the purpose of the vision was for him to ask for healing. That evening he told his mother about his experience and his certainty that he would be healed. She hugged him and both said a prayer of thanksgiving. The next morning he awoke with no swelling and no pain. He happily returned to school that day but when he returned to his job at the printing shop he had been replaced because he had been sick so long. Devastated and sobbing outside of Martin’s clothing store he made a resolution that no one would ever fire him again. This event helped shape his life-long quest to always run his own show.

Despite ulcers, migraines, an intestinal parasite infection, circular saw lacerations, several strokes, shingles, heat attacks, cardiac bypass & valve replacement surgery, tick and urinary infection, Billy Don was resilient and always eager to rise from….the reclining position to return to work. The man did not like to be inactive, confined nor out of the news feed of the day. You could hear it in his usual phone greeting - “Praise the Lord! Bill Patty speaking! What’s going on?”

We can make some reasonable guesses about Billy’s attitude regarding health matters from the following considerations: As a steak and potato and gravy man, who drank 6 to 8 cups of coffee daily while smoking 3 packs of cigarettes and assiduously avoiding water to minimize the risk of "rusting his insides," he didn’t believe in investing in health insurance; he placed his body in the hands of the Lord. Spiritual health was the foundation for physical health. If he slipped up somehow and ran into a little problem like the massive heart attack he had in 1980, he was not opposed to giving himself another chance to get back on track.

On that snow-shoveling day he staggered into the house with all the classic crushing symptoms of a first rate cardiac crisis. He instructed Ruthie to call the local hospital. She was told not to wait for an ambulance and not to let him do the driving, mainly to protect other motorists between home and hospital. Somehow they must have known about how he routinely driving with the gusto of simultaneously operating brakes, accelerator and steering while revving up the AC to keep himself cool. Off they went to the emergency room. Billy was placed on a waiting gurney curbside. It was a memorable sight with Billy self-administering cardiac compressions, beating his chest Tarzan style as he was wheeled into the E.R. Not surprisingly, during prayer Billy received a searingly hot in-chest healing experience. Later, his cardiologist was puzzled by the lack of expected serious damage to his heart muscle. Billy wasn’t surprised, though. He knew his spiritual engine was back on track and he was good to go. And so he was for another 41 years.

12. Family Relations

Faith and family have been two of the most compelling sources of meaning and motivation for Billy. His powerful love of Ruthie has flowed through to the family, friends and associates in his life. Billy’s strong moral compass, commitment to serving others, avoidance of any return to the sorrows of hunger and poverty, and enormous enjoyment of promoting happiness in others were powerful drivers that shaped his relational world internally and externally for those around him. He loved fiercely and fully. He was an all-in kind of companion. That level of full commitment could sometimes bring unfulfilled expectations, disappointment, and vulnerability. Ultimately his desire was always for repair, resolution, and restoration of mutual love.

13. Celebrity Contact

Tom Mix: When western movie star Tom Mix came to Muskogee to lead the annual rodeo parade, Willa dressed 4 year old Billy and baby sister Evelyn in matching sailor suits and maneuvered a way through the parade crowd to catch the eye the celebrated cowboy. Success. Looking down from the saddle he asked if the youngster could ride with him for the duration of the noisy procession. She met up with the two cowboys at the end of the route and with a “thank you kindly mam” he rode off.

Will Rogers: One of Billy’s newspaper tasks at the Vinita Journal was to carry the lighting equipment for important photo shoot. On one occasion Will Rogers, the beloved humorist and movie actor came through Vinita to visit. He is remembered for remarks like: “I’ve never met a man I didn’t like” “ Never let yesterday use up too much of today” and Billy’s favorite “ Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there”. He had attended the Willie Hausell Boarding school there in his youth. The newspaper team set up for the interview with the school building in the background. Will arrived in his friendly, easy going manner, put his boot and forearm on the gate, faced the camera, with a ready smile and ---nothing, no flash. Billy’s equipment malfunctioned. Humiliated, Billy was ready to run until Will, recognizing the kid’s embarrassment, gave him a supportive word of encouragement. The photo shot was a success. The annual Rodeo parade continues to headed up by a riderless horse in fulfillment of Will’s unrequited 1935 wish to lead that parade in the little town he loved.

Frank Lloyd Wright: Early one Sunday morning around 1952-1953 Billy drove out to the Bartlesville Oklahoma construction site of a tower building designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. While intently focused on a certain design feature, a small man appeared in a hardhat and asked Billy what he thought. Billy, assuming he was talking to a construction supervisor, offered his observations and particular interest in an innovative passive underground heating-cooling system. In response to Billy’s inquiry about the man’s assumed role as supervisor, the stranger replied that indeed he was and happened to be the architect of the project as well. After initial surprise a conversation ensued and culminated with Wright giving Billy his card and inviting him to visit at his office back East.

A memorial mass will be live streamed on Tuesday, September 28 at 10 a.m. via www.StPatrickWentzville.org Those attending in person will be required to mask and socially distance. 

In lieu of flowers, Billy would convincingly ask that any donations be directed to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Food Pantry at 4335 Warne Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63107 or via the website helpstlouis.org.