Billye June Rees-Jones' Obituary
Born in Dallas, Texas, June 1, 1924, to Hugh Robert Kay and Jessie Lucille Owens Kay. Billye June graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School as a class favorite and as valedictorian in 1941. From Woodrow she went to SMU where she joined Delta Delta Delta and was active in the debate team, student government, Mortar Board, and also graduated as valedictorian of her class of 1945. She was named a Beauty Nominee and a Class Favorite by the Rotunda, the SMU yearbook. Later, when Phi Beta Kappa came to SMU she was one of two members of the class of 1945 retroactively initiated into the SMU chapter. After teaching history at Hillcrest High School in Dallas, in 1946 she married Trevor William Rees-Jones and moved to Austin for three years where she worked for the State Board of Insurance Commissioners. When Trevor received his law degree, they returned to Dallas. Over the years she served as president of the Westminster Couples Sunday School class of the Highland Park Presbyterian Church, the Dallas Lawyers Wives Club, the Dallas Mortar Board Alliance, Junior Pierian Club, Profitears Investment Club, and the Lide Spragins Review Club. She also served as treasurer and vice-president of the Delta Delta Delta Alumnae, as a member of the Board of Governors of the Dallas Woman’s Club, and a member of the Marianne Scruggs Garden Club. Billye June was blessed with many friends who were dear to her, particularly those in her Tri Delta Luncheon Club, and she would to thank them for bringing much joy to her life. In later years, world travels from a historical perspective and a pursuit of genealogy were consuming passions. Despite many and varied interests, however, Billye June’s overriding pleasure and joy in life came from her children and grandchildren. Predeceasing her were her parents and a sister, Virginia Hugh Kay. Surviving her are her husband and her children and their families: Trevor David and Jan and their children, Trevor Richard and David Garrett of Dallas; Robert Winston and Patricia and their children, Alexander, Ashley, and Victoria of Parker, Colorado; and Valerie June and her children, Stephanie, Christopher, and Oliver of Dallas.
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