Billie Mae & Leroy

Billie Mae Repschleger Johnston

November 1, 1920 - April 24, 2014

Leroy Rugen Johnston

January 23, 1920 - September 1, 2014

Billie Mae and Leroy are my mom and dad. There is so much to share about them, but I will start with their love story.

Billie Mae was born in Port Arthur, Texas, and was the third and youngest daughter of William E. Repschleger and Christine Heisler Repschleger. As a little girl, she was a superb cartwheeler , and could do cartwheels all the way down the long driveway of the Repschleger's house on 6th Street. She was so good at cartwheels that she could even do them on one hand. She was in Camp Fire Girls and won a prize for her beaded headband. At Thomas Jefferson High School, she was in the Red Hussar Drum and Bugle Corps and was elected Secretary of her senior class. She was super smart but just an okay student. As she would be the first to say, she just wasn't into the academic part of school.

Leroy was born at the Swedish Rite hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on a snowy January day - the first-born child of Berdie and Leroy Johnston. He lived in Lockport, Illinois, until he was 12 years old and his Dad's job at the Texas Company (later Texaco), moved the family to Lawrenceville in southern Illinois where they lived for two years. He remembers driving a carload of friends from from Lawrenceville into Indiana for a basketball game one evening when he was only a little more than 12 years old - with his parent's permission and blessings! It is obvious that his parents thought of him as a model child - polite, responsible, and almost never any trouble.

When Leroy was 14, his Dad's job with Texaco moved the family to Port Arthur, Texas, and that is where he met Billie Mae. Billie and Leroy were both born in 1920, but they were two years apart in school because Billie Mae waited to start school until her younger brother Bill could go, and Leroy moved ahead half a year each time the family moved. That is why Leroy knew Billie Mae's older sister Helen, as Leroy and Helen were in the same class in school. As you will see, Leroy knowing Helen was a critical part of their story.

They met at the swimming pool at the country club in Port Arthur. As Leroy tells the story, he saw Billie Mae and asked Helen if she knew her. She laughed and said "Yes, I know her - she is my little sister!" Helen introduced Leroy to Billie Mae and their story began when Leroy invited her to be his date at a party at the home of one of his friends. That date was Billie Mae's very first date. She was 15 and he was 16.

They dated steadily all through high school and college, and were married the fall after Leroy graduated from Texas A&M - with Billie Mae readily admitting that she stayed in college only to wait for Leroy to graduate. Leroy proposed to Billie Mae the day he graduated, and gave her an engagement ring that he bought with money from the sale of his senior corps of cadets boots. They both admitted that they dated others throughout college, but knew the whole time where their hearts were. Billie Mae was very popular when she was a student at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, and was even pinned to another young man at one point, but she said that when Leroy was in town, her attention was exclusively on him. She was his date at many functions at Texas A&M, and he found ways to get to Georgetown on a regular basis. And of course they saw each other when they were both home in Port Arthur.

Billie Mae talked about a trick that Leroy and her sister Helen played on her - when Leroy asked Helen out and they deliberately tormented Billie Mae by sitting in the car in the drive-way for way too long, knowing Billie Mae was watching. Leroy told a story about a date much later when they went gambling in Louisiana; Billie Mae had some luck and made enough money for them to date all summer. Billie Mae talked about going out with the Johnstons and how she loved to dance with her future father-in-law. Leroy shared that he taught Billie Mae to smoke cigarettes and introduced her to blackberry wine. To me, these are endearing stories of young love and growing up together.

Billie Mae and Leroy were married on October 9, 1942, (in the early days of World War II) at the First Christian Church in Port Arthur, with a reception that followed at the Repschleger home on 6th Street. Billie Mae's sister Helen was her maid of honor, and oldest sister Lillian and college roommate Jeanne Tierney were bridesmaids, all wearing gowns of aqua chiffon made in a style similar to Billie Mae's wedding dress. Billie Mae carried a bouquet of white gardenias on her white Bible. Leroy's brother Norman was his best man.

The honeymoon was short - one night spent in a hotel in Beaumont. The next morning, the whole family met Billie Mae and Leroy at the train station in Beaumont to watch them board a train to St. Louis where Leroy was employed at the Curtis-Wright Company, contributing to the war effort by working for a company that manufactured airplanes. After the long train ride from Beaumont to St. Louis, Billie Mae sent her new husband off to work on Monday morning after making him breakfast with loaned dishes from their landlord; she then began to set up their little home. Before long, Leroy managed to find employment with Gulf Oil in Port Arthur, and the couple returned to Texas, expecting Leroy to go off to war in spite of repeated attempts to enlist that were foiled by his flat feet. His attempt to enlist were never successful, so the family began their family and their life together.

There are so many stories to tell about their life together, but this is a good beginning to the life-long love story that formed the basis for my family. I know that I can speak for my sister and brother when I say that we never doubted for one minute that our parents loved each other dearly. In their later years, I remember Mother saying that Leroy was the best-looking man she ever met, and that she had "loved that man" all of her life. And I remember Dad saying what a beautiful woman Mom was and how much she had helped him advance in his career at Gulf. I saw some ebbs and flows that are normal in every long-term relationship (72 years for them), but remember how they looked at each other and were there for each other, no matter what. I love them both, but especially love how they loved each other. More to come.....