O’NEAL, BILLY

BILLY O’NEAL

Dr. Jones was from a family of scientists at Oberlin College in Ohio. His father gave Berry College a huge collection of bird’s eggs.

Dr. H. C. taught an ornithology class at Berry. One boy and three girls took the course. We all took field glasses and did lots of tromping in the beautiful forests and around Victory Lake near the campus.

We used to have Sunday evening vespers at the Lake. The boy rode up front with Dr. Jones, Mildred Moore and another girl and I rode in the back of Dr. Jones car.

The boy, Billy O’Neal, was a very special friend of mine. I, as well as some other young girls, fell in love with him. He was a charmer. He had a ruddy complexion, black hair and beautiful blue eyes. I admired him for his ambition. He wanted to get good enough in music to join the Metropolitan Opera. I think he was capable of attaining his dreams but his life took a different turn. I have a very long essay Dr. Wildon Evans wrote about Billy. No one could have been praised more highly and no one could have written as eloquently as Wildon.

Billy spent lots of time with Frank Baisden and other elites who visited him. He would tell me of their conversations about Isadora Duncan, etc.

He also said he waked all the barking dogs on his way home with his loud singing. (Submitted by Lola Moore Kyte, Kingston, TN 37763.)

Leave a Comment

    Leave a comment