Billy Jackson 1936-2015

Billy Wayne Jackson spent his life measuring the land.

 A surveyor in the oil and gas industry for more than four decades, he plotted the boundaries for thousands of wells drilled throughout the southern and western United States – some of which remain in production to this day.

On Nov. 23, 2015, his life’s journey ascended to a heavenly plane. He was 79. Memorial services are set for 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 20, 2015, at Allan Fuller Funeral Home in Wills Point. Graveside services will follow at White Rose Cemetery in Wills Point.

Mr. Jackson was born Feb. 3, 1936, the son of John Clifton Jackson and Hattie Lorene Price Jackson. He was raised in Wills Point and attended Wills Point High School before joining the U.S. Army, where he served from 1956 to 1958 as a combat engineer at Fort Bliss and in West Germany.

Throughout the next four decades, he worked for several geophysical companies, surveying and mapping terrain that included the forests of the southeastern U.S., the arid expanse of western Texas and the Rocky Mountains.

A soft-spoken man who was loath to judge others, he enjoyed the solitude of the open outdoors. He was considerably skilled in math, geometry and trigonometry and was an avid student and explorer of Texas and American frontier history. In many ways, his nomadic lifestyle resembled that of the cowboys and settlers he admired, except that his trusty “horse” was a Chevy pickup.

He was preceded in death by both parents. 

He is survived by two sons, Bill W. Hornaday of Bloomington, Ind. and Daniel A. Hornaday of Jefferson, Ark.; two sisters, Ruth Jordan and Charlotte Jackson, both of Garland; a grandson, Hank Hornaday of Jefferson, Ark.; and a nephew, Lance Jordan of Garland.

Memorials may be made to Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch, 600 SW 11th Ave., Amarillo, TX 79101-3228.

Allan Fuller Funeral Home www.allanfullerfuneralhome.com.