4 years ago
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You didn't have to go far in Dover to hear folks talking about Billie Jo Burton.
?I stayed at her house a lot as a kid. I was best friends with Garren, her daughter.?
Kristen Nordin, like many of the girls in Dover, played on the softball team coached by Billie Jo and her husband Gary. News of her death is hitting many of the girls hard.
Nordin continues, ?It's just, people can be taken away from you so quickly. You just never know when it's going to happen.?
Jeanie McAlister says, ?I helped her decorate, we picked out the colors.?
McAlister helped the Burtons open a burger shop in Dover. Tuesday, friends and girls the couple coached, gathered there to remember the lady who touched the lives of so many of Dover's youth.
McAlister says, ?She mothered every kid probably within a 10-mile radius, absolutely fed probably thousands. She loved to feed them. She loved to go to their softball games, basketball games, avid sports fan. Anything going on at Dover, she was a part of.?
Billie Jo and Gary Burton were married when they were both just teenagers. Plans were already being made to celebrate their 24th anniversary.
Family friend Fred Standridge says, ?She'll still be with us in spirit and we're going to go on, and we're going to deal with this. And we're going to make the Burton family as comfortable as they can be.?
McAlister says, ?She had big shoes and I don't think there will be anyone who can fill them.?
Services for Billie Jo Burton will be held Thursday at 1 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in Dover.
