Obituary of Billie Mae Owings

The next episode of Dancing Among the Stars started on February 22, 2023, when Billie Mae Owings was bound for Heaven’s ballroom and her first dance in thirty-four years with her life-long dance partner and loving husband, L. Eugene Owings, who had been waiting there since September 6, 1989. We are sure they will pick up where they left off with easy-going soft swing moves, continuing with little regard for the embarrassment endured by their daughters, Vicki, Kathy and Lani because of Mom and Dad breaking into any sort of dance move, anywhere, anytime.

Billie was born on June 7, 1929, in Valley Springs, California as the only child of Lester and Cleo Simmons, each of whom preceded her in death. 

Soon after her birth, Billie and her parents moved to Victor, Colorado where her father, Lester, worked the mines in the Cripple Creek-Victor Mining District. Billie’s uncle’s family had also moved to Victor, where they owned and operated the McMillan Funeral Home. It was not uncommon for Billie and her cousins to ride their tricycles around the funeral home building in Victor with little care or notice of the family’s business services provided for the City of Victor in the first half of the 20th century. The family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado from Victor when Billie was in grade school. She attended Colorado Springs District No. 11 schools, graduating from Colorado Springs High School in June 1947.

A lifelong interest of Billie’s was the continuing relationship with her classmates from that graduating class of 1947. That group continued to meet very regularly, Billie attending the last monthly lunch gathering just four weeks before her passing. She is survived by four classmates from the Colorado Springs High School Class of 1947.

Billie and Gene were married in January 1948, at the First Evangelical United Brethren Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They continued their involvement in the church, now named Central United Methodist Church, until each could no longer regularly attend. Billie was a children’s Sunday School teacher for many, many years, and always ready to help with any ministry that needed assistance. After daughter, Vicki, started college, Billie worked for twenty years with the Gazette Telegraph delivering bulk newspapers to news racks all over town. Following her work at the Gazette, she was the hostess with the mostest for many years as a trusted and loved employee with the Nemeth family at Nemeth’s El Tejon restaurant.

As the Owings family grew, Billie found her time substantially filled with seven grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild. Birthday gatherings no less often than once a month, family together for holidays, and grandkids' sports and school events were on her schedule every week. When Vicki and Roger started having house concerts with their musician friends, Billie made the opportunities to sit front and center for a prime seat in the house for the entertainment. She loved to participate with new found friends at the house concerts and the artists fell in love with her.

Billie lived very independently with feline companions, Sylvester and Garfield, until late 2022 when she needed to be cared for to prevent any adverse impacts of Covid-19. She moved into Brookdale Monument Valley Park, and soon made new friends and acquaintances with the residents and staff. Billie’s family sincerely thanks those professionals at Brookdale for extraordinary care and companionship while she was with them.

Celebration of Life, 11:00AM, Saturday, March 4, 2023, Central United Methodist Church, 4373 Galley Road, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80915.