Sammie Houston Billings was born to Eldon and Lillie Billings on September 14, 1942. He passed away July 14, 2022, at 79 years of age.
Sam married the love of his life, Carolyne Louise White on March 2, 1962. They had three children: Ginger, Sammie, and Steven.
As children, we never went a day without our daddy telling us he loved us. He made certain we got a hug, a kiss and an “I love you” every night.
Most people knew him as Sam. He was truly a jack of all trades. He was a carpenter and handyman by trade. There wasn’t much he didn’t know how to do or know just enough to figure out once he started working on it. He could build or fix anything. He even built one house from the ground up, but he preferred fixing things, repairs, building cabinets, etc.
Sam was an Oklahoma Sooners Fan, and he raised all of us to absolutely love football. Game days were quite the event at the Billings home. He also loved golfing with his son and his friends: Lonnie Partridge, Mark Penn, Dennis Sprague, son-in-law, Skeet and many others.
While he loved building and fixing things, he found something he loved so much more when he began to study the Bible in 1968. He continued studying for years, but it was difficult for him to quit smoking and make the changes he wanted to make. He then began studying the Bible with Virgil Arnold in 1981 and in 1982 he was baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. As we were cleaning out his pickup, we found his well-used Bible right where he left it so he could quickly reach it to share a scripture with someone.
After 40 years of marriage, he lost his cherished wife on July 25, 2002. Losing his “Bay”, as they affectionately called each other, was difficult for him, so he kept himself busy to cope with her absence, spending the next 9 years as a full-time minister until he became physically unable to continue. After that he was in the ministry as much as his health would allow because sharing Bible truths brought him so much happiness.
Sam had a way of making everyone around him laugh and was known for his many quips and old-time sayings. Everyone loved going to get-togethers when he was bringing his famous chili or salsa.
Even though he could be quite cantankerous, anyone who knew him well loved him dearly.
The death of his cherished wife was a loss he never completely recovered from and then four months ago he lost his son, Steven. These losses were too much for his already broken heart to bear.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Carolyne, and son, Steven; his mother: Lillie Johnston Billings Pitts, father: Eldon Billings, siblings: Patsy Brookshier, Bobby Billings, Charles Billings and Darrell Billings as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
Sam is survived by his daughters, Ginger Schochler and Sammie Christensen and husband, Skeet. He loved being a Papa to grandchildren: Kaitlyn Schochler, Dillon Christensen and wife, Jara, Cassandra Schochler, Samara Barajas and husband, Angel, and Alyssa Schochler; his brother-in-law: Jim White, sisters-in-law: Earldean Billingsly and Joanne Billings, many nieces, nephews and cousins. Sam had many close friends that will also miss him such as Johnny Brimage, Tom Watson and his much-loved dog, Kyler Murray. There were many he considered to be extra sons and daughters: the Mathews girls-Bobbi, Gwen and SeReatha, Dustin Penn, Jonathan Nelson and Sam Arnold, Summer Sellers and Lea Smith, just to name a few.
A memorial service will be held at the Sapulpa Kingdom Hall on August 13, 2022, at 2 pm. The address is 1125 Brenner Rd in Sapulpa. Brother Dennis Sprague will officiate.
