Billye Joy Andrews

Billye Joy Andrews peacefully left her sweet little house to go home to Jesus, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. Billye was born in Breckenridge, Texas on March 2, 1931 to Clarence Dalton Andrews and Lula Marie Guillory and was the oldest of four children. Her two sisters, Dolores and Joyce followed in quick succession and their brother Clarence was born when Billye was 11.

The family lived in the French Quarter in New Orleans until Billye was about 8 years old; when they returned to Breckenridge where Billye first attended school. As it turned out, she loved to skip school so she could join her dad for his truck driving jobs to exotic places like El Paso, Texas and Pinas Altas, New Mexico. His work eventually took the family to Pine Canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona, then Hurley and Silver City, New Mexico, where Billye attended high school and landed her first glamorous job picking wilted lettuce out of salads before they were served to restaurant patrons. Her carefree cash register skills got her fired from her next cafe job so she moved on to working in the hospital kitchen in Silver City.

Billye loved dancing so much she would sneak out knowing she was facing a spanking if caught out past curfew and she did this well into her teens. Billye eventually met another dancer and music lover, her future husband Benny Greenwood, a young, dashing Marine. Since both money and space were tight, Billye and her sisters shared a bed and they were ready for Billye to move on when she announced she was getting married.

The fun-loving pair married and later had their daughter, Renee in May of 1949. Billye often recounted stories of her early marriage; saving some money so her new little family could move into a slightly better apartment followed by moving into a bit cheaper one so they could afford the better apartment again. The family moved twenty-four times in 2 years, often into the Turner Apartment building which was coveted since tenants could move the kitchen sink cabinet around, deciding which room would be the kitchen and which the living room. Such rapid moves meant that Benny often returned to the wrong apartment after a long shift at work.

The young family eventually followed Billye’s parents to Ray, Arizona where her father and husband both worked for the Kennecott Mine. Billye and Benny’s daughter, Anita was born in Ray in January of 1955. When the town was commandeered by the mine, they joined her parents and other families and relocated to the newly planned community of Kearny, Arizona in 1963. Billye worked part time in a fabric shop and was famous for her expert sewing skills, custom tailoring many of the new town’s draperies and fashionable clothing. She rode horses, hiked the desert, hunted, camped, tried to garden, fished with glee and even learned to swim in her thirties. She loved to have fun and was infamous for her ability to imitate voices and mannerisms of other people.

Newly single in her forties, Billye attended a business college in Phoenix and became a medical transcriptionist. Her dream was to live in the White Mountains where she had spent many years camping and fishing as a young woman. Her dream came true when she moved to Springerville in 1981, transferring from the Good Samaritan Hospital in Page, Arizona to the hospital in Round Valley.

Being born early in the Great Depression and spending a bit of that time living in a glorified chicken coop in her grandmother’s yard in Texas, Billye was always frugal and abhorred waste, saving money to buy land and have her own house built on Maricopa Drive. She still loved traveling with her dad and by the time she retired from the hospital in 1993, she had paid off her house and a new car and was free to spend her time going to Washington state to visit her daughter, Renee and son-in-law, Mike or see her siblings.

Billye started painting with her sister, Dolores in her fifties and became an avid and accomplished oil painter. Many of her family, friends and acquaintances have one of her beautiful paintings on their walls. Billye continued to fish well into her eighties and enjoyed a camping trip just last year at the age of 93. She was a health enthusiast, often taking her grandkids to exercise or swimming classes and surprising them when they spent the night by only having wheat germ and plain yogurt in her refrigerator. Billye was also a devoted dog person and could recount the many adventures of her loyal canine companions throughout her life, from her childhood dog, Wolf to her retired show shelties, Danny, Frankie and Scarlett to her latest and best rescue dog ever, Beau.

While she was allowed to do it, she never wanted to hear anyone else complain about the weather in the White Mountains. She loved sitting on her quiet porch to enjoy the sight of grazing cows to the south of her property and to keep an eye on the rapidly changing sky and dramatic clouds. She would often say that you couldn’t really paint the skies here, people just wouldn’t believe it.

One of Billye’s greatest satisfactions in life was her large family. She has two daughters, five grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren. For nearly a decade Billye was the matriarch of five generations who loved her stories, prayers, quick wit, drop-in visits, salmon dip, paintings, voicemails, crochet and in turns, either hilarious or profound phone conversations.

Above all, Billye loved Jesus and ministered to women all her life. She started a non-denominational church not long after moving to Springerville and as a lifelong Pentecostal attended the Assembly of God and strongly believed in the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives. She traveled to Israel with her brother, Clarence to visit the places Jesus had lived and also went on many revival trips with her brother praying for and worshipping with all kinds of people all over the southwest. Many are already sorely missing her devoted prayer life, which affected hundreds of people. If she met you today, Billye would ask you if you know how much Jesus loves you. She knew she was going home to be with Him and had been looking forward to that upgrade for years.

Billye Joy was preceded in death by her parents and siblings, nephews, Ray (Cathy) Capshaw, Gordon (Pepi) Capshaw and son-in-law, Mike Krubsack.

She is survived by her daughters, Renee Guillierie, Anita (David) Carter, granddaughters, Dawn Carter (Todd Jones), Liz Carter, Amory (Joe) Gutierrez, grandsons, Judah (Roxi) Carter, Adam (Sarah) Carter, great-grandsons, Jordan (Drew) Carter, Caleb Carter, Ben Carter, Gabe Gutierrez, Cole Gutierrez, great-granddaughters, Mercy Carter, Lina Carter, Lily Jones, Megan (Tyler) Bruso, Lula Carter, Stella Carter, great-great-grandsons, Luke Carter, Elijah Bruso, and great-great-granddaughter, Tori Carter as well as by many nieces and nephews.

A funeral service will be held, Tuesday, May 6, 2025 at 11:30 a.m. at Harvest Church, 8340 W. Northern Ave. (Building C), Glendale, followed by a graveside service at 2:00 p.m. at Resthaven Park Cemetery, 6540 W. Northern Ave., Glendale. A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, May 10, 2025 at 1:30 p.m. at Momentum Life Church, Springerville.