In tribute - Billy Joe Essary: A friend to all

Billy Joe Essary never met a stranger. Everyone was his friend, according to Essary's family.

"He made everybody feel like a friend," said Gary Essary of his father.

"He had this way of making strangers feel at home," said Amy Essary, the wife of his son, Carl. "I knew that, but I don't think I realized just how much, because I have met so many people who see him as a close friend and have said they will miss him deeply."

Essary, a lifetime Roosevelt County resident, died on Dec. 22 at 72.

No matter the situation, Essary never turned away a person in need, said his family.

"I remember one time, Dad taking in some boys," said his son, Marlin. "They had stolen a car and they broke down, and Dad drove by and thought they were up to no good. Dad took them into his home and shared the Lord with them. He told them, 'Is this who you want to be? Is this what you want for yourself?' I remember one of them broke down and cried. The next morning, they walked back into town."

Essary's sons also remember "dying of embarrassment" as teenagers when their father would play a drunk man on stage during the annual Floyd Jamboree concert.

"He was always trying to make people laugh. Any situation, he was always trying to turn it into something comical and make people laugh," said Marlin Essary. "He always said if people are laughing, they can't think of the bad."

"I don't know that he really had to work at it," added Lorene Paige, Essary's first wife. "It just came naturally."

Essary's grandchildren recall their grandfather clicking his fingernails as he cupped them in his hand and asking them, "Can you hear that cricket talking to you?"

"Every time he'd greet me, he'd say, 'How are you?' and I'd say, 'I'm good,' and he'd say, 'Well, I know you're good, but how are you?' That was one of my favorite things," said his granddaughter, Kym Essary.

"Some of my favorite moments were when Grandpa would stumble, and he'd say, 'Only my wife knows I'm not drunk,'" added granddaughter JoAnna Schultz with a laugh.

"He'd stumble on a rock, and he'd say, 'That rock knows karate,'" Carl said.

Essary was also a jack of all trades - welder, laborer, mechanic.

"The one thing that stood out with me is that there was nothing he couldn't do. Whatever needed to be done, he took off and did it," Paige said.

"The part of Billy Joe that always impressed me was that he had a really good head on his shoulders. Somebody would have a problem, and they'd call Billy Joe, because he always had a solution. He always had a way to help," said Amy Essary.

Essary had a passion for fishing and gold panning. One of his proudest fishing ventures was when he caught an 8-foot sturgeon on the Salmon River.

Grandson DeJesus Essary recalled a fishing trip with his grandfather to Abiquiu Lake where Essary forgot to put the plug in their boat.

"We were a ways away from the dock," DeJesus said. "We asked him, 'Grandpa, why is there water coming in from the hole?' He said, 'Oh it's like a cooler; that's how it works.'"

Essary's biggest passion of all was his family.

"He was kind and gentle, always loving. He took such good care of me," said his wife, Betty Essary.