Billie Jo
When Adam Bradley married Kate Carson, the whole town was happy. Kate's uncle Joseph Carson was willed a hotel, he gave it to the newly married couple for a wedding present. They made the hotel their home. When you walked into the hotel; called The Shady Rest, you felt like a member of the family. Kate was the best cook in the town and after the guests finished the evening meal. Adam would invite them into the lobby for music and singing. The whole house was happy.
When the couple had been married three years, Kate gave birth to the couple's first child, a beautiful daughter. They named her Wilhelmina Jordan Bradley, her uncle Joe started calling the blond, blue-eyed baby Billie Jo. She was a happy baby, always smiling with dimpled cheeks. By her first birthday, she was toddling around. She would walk up the stairs, grasp the rail and walk back down. When Billie was eighteen months old, her mother had another baby girl.
The second daughter was just as beautiful, they named her Roberta Joanne, but uncle Joe began calling the brown haired, brown eyed baby girl Bobbie Jo. She also was a good baby, smiling and happy with her brown eyes sparkling. By the time Bobbie was two, Kate was expecting another baby. Soon, Kate gave birth to a third daughter just as beautiful as her sisters, they named their newest daughter Elizabeth Josephine, but as usual, uncle Joe nicknamed his latest niece, Elizabeth was named Betty Jo.
When she was a tiny baby, Betty had no hair and her eyes were blue like Billie's, but by the time she turned five months old, dark red hair like her uncle Frank, Kate's older brother, was sprouting and her blue eyes turned green. She too was a good baby. One afternoon when Betty Jo was toddling around at fifteen-months, and Bobbie was almost four and Billie had just turned six, a horrible tragedy happened. Adam was on the top of the roof, repairing a hole when he fell, he died almost instantly.
Kate's uncle Joe moved in to help run the hotel and to help raise his nieces. Billie Jo had started school and was playing the piano. She came home one afternoon and asked her mother "Mommy, can I sing in the school chorus?" Kate smiled at her and replied, "Why yes darling, you can sing." Billie skipped happily to school with the permission slip the next day. Bobbie, who was four began taking piano lessons from her mother too. By the time she was six, she also played well and also could sing.
Then little Betty Jo began playing the piano, and she too began singing. Neighbors told Kate and Joe, "You need to take the girls to New York and let them audition for a radio contest" But Kate didn't want to leave her happy little town. Uncle Joe didn't want her to leave either. "Besides," he told Kate one evening, "I'm learning Betty Jo how to pitch and bat she's going to be the first woman professional baseball player." Betty Jo loved baseball, she and her uncle Joe attended every game in the town.
When Billie turned ten, she asked Kate one afternoon, "Mom may I please be in the chorus?" Kate smiled and told her yes. She stayed in it through her junior high years. When she was fourteen, she was going to be the one doing a solo in the Spring chorus, Kate was sitting in the audience, along with Uncle Joe, Bobbie and Betty. Kate was tapped on the shoulder by Missus Bennett, "Missus Bradley, could you come with me please?" she was taken backstage, "Billie has a very bad case of stage fright Missus Bradley."
When Kate got to the backstage area, Billie was standing near the stage sobbing her heart out. "Mom! I'm scared, please take me home!" Kate took some tissues out of her purse, "Young lady, you dry those tears and get on the stage, there's nothing to be frightened of, just imagine the audience is sitting there in their underwear." Billie smiled and snuffled a bit. "All right Mom." She wiped her face and blew her nose, Kate went back to her seat. Billie came out and sang beautifully. It was Kate crying this time, but with joy.
By the time Billie was eighteen, she had graduated and was going to the community college, she was taking music and learning to become a singing teacher. Bobbie , who was sixteen was in the top five of her class, and Betty, who was fourteen was the smartest girl in her ninth-grade class, plus she was on the girl's softball team.
Two years later, it was a hot summer afternoon, the girls were swimming in the water tower. An old fashioned crop dusting airplane was flying, it got lower and lower. The girls watched in horror as it crashed near the hotel. They got out of the water, wrapped towels around themselves to dry off their swimsuits and put sandal's on their feet. Uncle Joe was already there. The frightened girls asked "Uncle Joe, is he going to be all right?" Uncle Joe told Betty Jo to run to the hotel and call the doctor, they didn't move him. When the doctor arrived, he checked the young man's vitals. Together, he and Uncle Joe got the young man out and carried him into the hotel.
A few minutes later, the young man opened his eyes, Bobbie Jo whispered to Billie Jo, "Oh he so cute, look at his gorgeous eyes." He looked at the three girls, "I think I'm in heaven with three beautiful angels." He weakly smiled, "Oh he his dimples." Betty Jo said. Billie Jo said and beautiful brown eyes too." They looked at his wallet. His name was Steven Michael Elliot, he was twenty two years old and had graduated from Princeton, he was in the air force but was running a crop dusting service. When Steve, as he wanted to be called had eaten and Uncle Joe taken him into the bathroom so he could bathe and shave, got back into bed and let three pretty nurses wait on him.
When he was fully recovered, he asked Kate if he could stay there while he worked, Kate told him she would love to have him stay. He paid her for room and board, Betty Jo helped him with his plane, and he played baseball with her, he called her sport, Bobbie would cook delicious pies, cakes and meals for him, Billie would cook for him also, but they would play piano together after dinner every night. They found out Steve had a lovely singing voice also. The duo would sing at church on Sunday's. On Christmas Eve the Bradley's and Uncle Joe, along with Steve went to the church for a special service. When the congregation was seated, the light lowered and candles were lit. The organ played O Little Town Of Bethlehem.
A few minutes later, Billie Jo stepped out and went to the pulpit, the high school string section was there, along with the wind and brass The piano began playing and Billie Jo opened her mouth and the most beautiful song flowed, "Oh Holy Night, the stars were brightly shining, this is the night of our dear Savior's birth" The congregation were all wiping their eyes and blowing their noses. Billie Jo sounded like an angel. There was going to be a dance at the country club on New Years Eve, Billie Jo got an invitation and a letter.
The letter was addressed to Miss Wilhelmina Jordan Bradley, Dear Billie Jo, I am a very shy young man, I heard you sing at the Christmas program at church. May I be your date to the New Years dance? It was signed Your Secret Admirer. When a nervous Billie answered her door that evening, Steve was there. "I'm your secret admirer, May I take you to the dance?" Billie smiled and said "Yes you may." When the man announced it was the new year Steve kissed Billie, she blushed, but so did he. "You aren't going to believe this, but you're the first girl I've ever kissed." Billie shyly told him. "And you're the first boy that's ever kissed me." On Billie's birthday, Steve took her out to dinner and a movie, when the movie was over, they walked in the park.
They sat on a bench and looked at the moon reflecting on the water. Steve handed her a small box, it was wrapped. When she opened it, she gasped "Oh a ring!" he smiled and kissed her again. "I want to ask you a question, Billie Jo, will you be my wife?" She tearfully said yes. They were engaged for a year. The couple had arguments and made up again, just like all couples did. On June 25th They were married by the minister that had known Billie all her life. They went on their honeymoon to Hawaii. When they got back home, they got their own home and Steve went back to work in the crop dusting business and Billie went to work as a music teacher, she taught the grade school children and also taught piano. When they had been married for about seven months, Billie found out she was going to have a baby. Six-months later, Billie Jo and Steve were in the hospital, the family nervously waiting in the waiting room, along with Steve. A nurse came out. "Missus Bradley, Mister Elliot, Mister Carson and Bradley family? I'm very happy to tell you that Billie Jo has just give birth to a seven pound- seven ounce baby boy. Another nurse brought the tiny baby out to meet his family. They looked at the beautiful newborn, he had golden hair and blue eyes. "He looks just like Billie Jo when she was born." Kate tearfully said.
Steve went into the room and looked at Billie Jo, she was asleep. He kissed her softly on the cheek. Billie woke, "Hi darling, have you seen the baby?" Steve smiled "Yes darling I've saw him, he's so beautiful." The nurse brought the baby in the room. "This little fellow wanted to see his Mother and Father, he's hungry, would you like to feed him?" Billie Jo fed the baby, after he was fed and burped, she changed his diaper, they took him back to the nursery. Later on, after they had eaten the dinner they gave the new parents, steaks, baked potatoes and salad, the nurse came back in with the baby's birth certificate with his tiny footprints.
She asked them "This little fellow needs a name, have you picked one out yet?" Steve and Billie Jo both nodded yes. Steve told the nurse. "His name is Bradley Steven Elliot" They allowed him to stay the night with Billie Jo. Three days later, they took their newborn son home. The first night was a breeze, they were awake before the baby was. The next night wasn't so easy. Kate was washing dishes when the phone rang "Mom, could you please come over here? Billie Jo is scared to death and I'm scared too." Kate came right over. When she got there, Steve was almost crying, but Billie Jo was crying hard, she sobbed and wrapped her arms around Kate like a lifeline.
"Oh Mom!" she sobbed. "I'm scared, I've never even held or taken care of such a tiny baby, please help us." Kate held Billie Jo in her arms until she stopped sobbing. She then took Brad as that was what they were going to call him, into her arms, she showed the nervous young couple how to feed a small baby, how to burp after a few ounces, how to bathe and clean his umbilical cord, how to diaper him. Then after she rocked and softly sang her grandson to sleep, she put him in his bassinet. She went home and got some clothes, she stayed with them for a week.
By the time Brad was six weeks old, Billie went back to work, Bobbie Jo and Betty Jo were Brad's sitters. Steve went back to his crop dusting, It seemed like the baby had just been born when it was time to celebrate his first birthday. Brad had a beautiful head of blond curls, Billie Jo cried when it was time for his first hair cut. When Brad turned two, Billie Jo and Steve had another baby, a girl was born to them, she looked like Brad after he was born, they named this baby Katherine Mary Elliot. They called her Katie, her namesake was happy, now she had two precious grandchildren to love.