Billie Harty

Billie Jean Harty, daughter of the late Leslie Lemons and Pearl Woodruff Lemons, was born on December 28, 1927, in Essex and passed away on Friday, June 21, 2013, at the Southeast Health Center of Stoddard County in Dexter, Missouri. Billie married Norman B. Harty on January 22, 1966, at Williams Baptist college in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. He survives of the home. Billie graduated from Dexter High School in 1946. After working in several entities, Billie was determined to earn a degree in the realm of education and enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University, where she completed her B.A. in three years, and completed her master's degree in education a year later while teaching. She taught first grade in the Bernie Public Schools and later served as school counselor there. In 1969, as the Norman B. Harty companies were expanding, Billie took a year off to explore the business world. After returning to the classroom in Bloomfield Schools for one year, she retired from teaching to devote the rest of her life to the Harty Companies., where she would serve as secretary and treasurer of N.B. Harty Company, President of Seminole Ag Line Quarry, which she and her husband ran until the early 1990's, as secretary to both the chairman of the board of First commercial Banks and of the Harty owned nursing facilities of Gideon Healthcare in Gideon and Winchester Place in Bernie. Billie was a longtime member of First Baptist Church in Dexter, and attended the church where her mother attended before her, First Christian Church of Dexter. Billie was actively involved in the couple's business, the N. B. Harty Company of Dexter until the time of her death, reporting to work regularly and conducting the transactions of the business on a daily basis. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, employer, and influenced the lives of countless children, and numerous other business women during her lifetime in the classroom and in the business world. She is survived by her husband, Norman B. Harty of Dexter; one daughter, Sue Lee (Robert E. Lee) of Dexter; one grandson, Christopher Blane Wilkerson of Dexter; one brother, Leslie Paul Lemons of Brunswick, Ohio. A host of nieces and nephews also survive. Along with her parents she was preceded in death by one son in infancy and a brother, Leonard Lemons. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. at the First Baptist Church in Dexter. Funeral services will follow at 11:00 a.m. with the Rev. Howard Fuller, Don Kennedy, Rev. Mike Williams and Larry Thompson officiating. Interment will follow in the Dexter Cemetery in Dexter, Missouri with Watkins & Sons Funeral Service of Dexter, Missouri in charge of arrangements. A meal will follow at the First Christian Church Fellowship Hall in Dexter. Memorial donations may be made to the Stoddard County Children's Home, P O Box 164, Dexter, MO 63841; 18 Fore Life Charity Foundation, 705 Laurie Circle, Dexter, MO 63841; or the Stoddard County Relay for Life, 703 Ellare Lane, Dexter, MO 63841.