Obit – Mr. Billy M. Shoulders
Mr. Billy M. Shoulders, age 90, a farmer of the Cato community, died at 11:40 p.m. Saturday evening, July 30, 2022, at the Sumner Regional Medical Center in Gallatin where he was admitted earlier that day from Riverview Regional Medical Center in Carthage.
Mr. Shoulders was at the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home where his funeral services were conducted Wednesday afternoon, August 3rd, with Bro. Jackie Dillehay officiating. Following the 1 p.m. services, burial was in the Garden of Gethsemane at the Smith County Memorial Gardens.
He was the third of ten children and the first to die and was born Billy Morris Shoulders on March 18, 1932 on the family farm in the Cato community of Trousdale County and was the son of the late Claude Morris Shoulders, who died March 11, 1994 at the age of 87, and Leonia Dorch Oldham Shoulders, who died December 22, 2009 at the age of 99. His father, Mr. Claude, was a longtime bus driver for the Smith County School System running the Riddleton-Dixon Springs route.
Mr. Shoulders was a 1951 graduate of Smith County High School where he majored in Agriculture.
He was saved at the age of 14 at a revival meeting being conducted by the late Eld. Calvin “Cal” Gregory and was baptized into the full fellowship of the Maces Hill Missionary Baptist Church where he remained a member at death.
Mr. Shoulders was preceded in death by his former first wife and the mother of his children, the late Ada Apple Shoulders, who died July 14, 2007 at the age of 71.
They were preceded in death by a daughter, Phyllis Elaine Shoulders, who died at the age of 3 days old on December 15, 1952.
He was also preceded in death by his and Ada’s son, Marty Gene Shoulders, who died at the age of 62, after a battle with cancer, on October 7, 2021.
In Gatlinburg on June 13, 1998, he was united in marriage to Lafayette resident, the former Virginia Sue Mitchell.
Mr. Shoulders retired in 2007 at the age of 75 as a van driver for the Upper Cumberland Human Resources Agency, driving both in Smith and Macon counties, for a period of service of over twenty one years.
He enjoyed his life career as a farmer and especially enjoyed raising watermelons.
In addition to farming, he served as a director of the former Cookeville Production Credit Association for several years in the 1970’s.
Surviving, in addition to his wife, Sue, of over twenty four years, are his three children, Charlotte Shoulders Hensley and husband, Eld. Kenny Hensley, and Eddie Shoulders, all of the Boulton Bend community; Jeff Shoulders and wife, Shannon, of Phoenix, Arizona; Sue’s daughter, Shannon Armistead and husband, Paul, of the Tanglewood community; six sisters, Sylvia Shoulders Hibdon of Clarksville, Elberta Shoulders Burnette of Springfield, Edwina Shoulders Southerland of Cleveland, Tennessee, Faye Shoulders Fowler and husband, Jack, of Florida; Mary Ann Shoulders Roberts and husband, Lanier, of Alabama, Betty Jean Shoulders Cothron of Springfield; three brothers, Eld. J. B. Shoulders and wife, Roberta, of Lafayette, Bobby Shoulders of Gallatin, Eld. James Shoulders and wife, Sue, of Greenbrier; five grandchildren, Brian Hensley and wife, Krista, of the Lock Seven community, Beth Hensley Conditt and husband, Josh, of the Brush Creek community, Racheal McBroom Petty and husband, Jonathan, Taylor Shoulders, all of Hartsville, Timmy Wentworth of Lafayette; four great-grandchildren, Haley Ezell and husband, Caleb, Regean and Julian Petty, Sloan Conditt; caregiver, Courtney Bode of the Castalian Springs community.
The Shoulders family requests memorials to the Smith County Senior Citizen Center.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
