Our beautiful Mother, Elmeda “Billie” Reid Berry, passed away peacefully from natural causes at 97½ years of age on Saturday, January 25, 2020. Billie was born on May 31, 1922 in Abraham, Utah, the youngest of 4 daughters born to Albert and Leah Reid. Her young life was spent on the family farm in Abraham. She went to the Abraham Elementary School and graduated from the Hinckley High School. She and her sisters walked a mile down the canal each morning to attend the Elementary School and then for high school they walked a mile down the road to catch the bus to Hinckley. Her summers were spent herding cows along the ditch banks. During those long summer hours she and her sister, Rubye, learned to crochet and read good books from the back of a horse. After graduation she attended a tailoring school in Salt Lake City for young women who were talented at sewing.
On June 3, 1942, Billie married Doyle Andrew Berry. They began their married life in a four room house with no power or running water. From there they worked together to build their very successful farm and ranch in the Sugarville area. Billie mowed hay, fed animals, and cooked for hay crews on a coal stove in a kitchen that was hot enough to fry an egg on the ceiling in the summer time. For years she followed the cowboys with the truck and trailer as they trailed their cattle across the desert to the summer range. When she was at home she sewed all the family clothing. Doyle’s shirts were of heavy denim so the mosquitos in the hay fields could not bite through. We always felt like th best dressed kids in the whole world because of her skill.
Billie’s father and paternal grandmother instilled in her a deep respect for the Bible. In the late 1940's, she began to study the Bible with Annie Milton, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She was excited to learn the Bible in depth and in the early 1950's, became one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She never stopped learning and was most diligent in sharing what she had learned with her children and others.
Billie was preceded in death by her parents: Albert and Leah Reid; 3 sisters: Mae, Evva and Rubye; husband of 73 years: Doyle A. Berry; grandson: Eddie A. Berry; and son-in-law: Pete Bulloch. She is survived by her children: Andrea Bulloch and Theo Berry; grandchildren: Adam Seltzer (Brian), Justin (Lisa) Seltzer, Randy Seltzer, Tracy Jo (Chance) Lyman; great-grandchildren: Cole Seltzer, Lexie Lyman and Hazen Lyman.
She truly was as her husband called her, “A Good Woman”. She will be sorely missed but her example will live on in all of us.
Her final resting place will be in the Delta City Cemetery near her family. Arrangements have been made for a Private Family Service at a later time.