Mr. Billy Dean Kirby's Obituary
Billy Dean (Bill) Kirby was born June 26, 1932 in Neshoba County, Mississippi. He was the youngest of five children of Henry and Minnie Kirby. Upon graduation from high school, Bill immediately enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. His basic training was in San Antonio. Upon completion of basic training, he was deployed to Ellington Field in Houston where he was assigned to the 747th AC&W Squadron. From Ellington, he was deployed to Korea for 13 months. After his return from Korea, he spent the last 6 months of his enlistment at a radar site near Moriarity, New Mexico. While stationed at Ellington, Bill met and married Wanda Greene. They had one son, Stephen Dean Kirby who is now deceased. Upon completion of his military duty, Bill enrolled in Southern Arkansas University. He earned a degree in accounting before returning to Houston, where he worked as an accountant, controller or treasurer for various companies. Among them: Trancontinental Gas Pipeline, Sperry-Sun Well Surveying, Gibraltar Fence Manufacturing and Gardner-BH Contructors. Along the way, he began investing in real estate. In 1991 he retired from Phoenix Services, Inc. to devote full time to real estate investments. He spent many hours restoring and maintaining properties. Since their return to Houston, Bill and Wanda have lived in the Hobby Airport area where their son, Steve was active in Little League, Pony League and Colt League. Bill was a volunteer umpire, treasurer and equipment manager for those leagues. Bill suffered a broken hip in October and did not come out of the anesthesia after hip replacement surgery. He died just after being moved to hospice care on December 18, 2008. His survivors are wife, Wanda Kirby; grandson, Austin Kirby; granddaughter-in-law, Amy Kirby; great-grandchildren, Kaylee and Kody Kirby; brother and wife, Elton and Dorothy Kirby; sisters-in-law, Gloria West and Geraldine McNatt and Travis, her husband; devoted friend and business associate, Terry Owens and friends of many years, George and Sandra Kassos. The family prefers donations to St. Jude's Children Hospital, Houston SPCA or any youth baseball program instead of flowers. Visitation will be held on Monday, December 22, 2008 from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. at SouthPark Funeral Home. The funeral services and celebration of Bill's life will be held at 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, December 23, 2008 in the chapel of SouthPark Funeral Home. The interment to follow at SouthPark Cemetery.
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