Billie Jean Barewald

March 3, 1934 – January 12, 2024

Passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Born in Mt. Holly, North Carolina, Billie grew up there and graduated from Mt. Holly High School in 1951. She had five brothers and sisters, four of whom preceded her in death: Beatrice, Frederick, Morris, and Martha.

Billie graduated from the Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the Class of 1954. After graduating, she joined the Air Force and was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she met and married James Reid Barewald, a pilot and Physiological Training Officer. Their daughter, Leslie, was born in 1957 and Billie continued to work as a doctor’s office nurse after leaving the service. After a brief stint in Colorado to allow Jim to get his engineering degree, the family settled in Mtn. View, California. Their son, David, was born in 1964 at which time Billie left nursing to stay home with their two children for many years. As the children grew older, Billie resumed her nursing career by working at the Stanford University Infirmary. From there she moved to the American Red Cross in San Jose, ending her career there as Director of Nurses and Apheresis, a job she loved. Jim and Billie were divorced in 1990 but remained close friends until his death in 2006. At her 50th high school reunion, she renewed her friendship with John Helton and they traveled together all over the world for many years.

Billie was very active in the anti-fluoride movement, followed politics closely, especially the campaigns of Ron Paul, and maintained friendships with many lifelong friends. She enjoyed listening to music and loved to spend time with her children and grandchildren. She finally sold the Mtn. View home in 2012 and moved to Southern California to be closer to her children as her memory began to be troublesome. In 2022, Leslie and David moved her to Tennessee to be closer to Leslie, and David joined them in Tennessee in December of 2023.

Billie is survived by her sister, Delores; son David and daughter Leslie; grandchildren Rachel, Jenna, and Andy and his wife Spring (their 7 children: Maria, Liliana, Sito, Bella, Gabriella, Lexi and Livi, and Maria's daughter, Evelyn)); and great-grandchildren Calvin, Rhett, Jackson and JJ.

Billie was warm, loving and very generous; strong, independent and intelligent, and had a delightful sense of humor. She was a wonderful model to her children and grandchildren of the ideal mother and grandmother. She will be sorely missed.

Friends who wish may make memorial contributions in Billie’s name to the American Red Cross (redcross.org) or the Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org).