Billie White Everett

Billie White Everett, 93, of Lubbock and formerly of Tahoka, passed away on Monday morning, April 21, 2025.

Billie Frances Reed was born in Dermott, Texas, in 1932, to the late Clint and Bernice Reed. She was the third of 6 daughters born to this couple. In her early years she studied dance in Snyder, Texas and she and her two older sisters formed a dancing routine known as the Reed Sisters.

Billie attended Snyder schools. The family moved from Snyder to Littlefield in 1946 during her junior years where her father Clint was Section Foreman for Santa Fe Railroad. She graduated in 1948 with honors from Littlefield High School at the age of 16. It was while she worked at the local drug store she met Martin M. White, Jr., who was a funeral director and embalmer at Hammons Funeral Home. She and Martin married on June 6, 1948, in a double ceremony with her older sister, Verna Lee. Both girls married Sudan boys.

Billie and Martin tried their hand at farming for two years but decided to leave the farm and pursue other careers. Martin and Billie subsequently moved to Gorman, Texas where they learned of an opportunity to manage a funeral home in Tahoka, called Stanley Jones Funeral Home. In February of 1955, Martin and Billie moved to Tahoka and took over operations of the business. In 1959, Billie decided to get her funeral director’s license. She travelled by train every week for 3 months to Houston’s Landrig College of Mortuary Science and came home on the weekends. She received her Texas Funeral Director’s license in 1959. Gary Clifton White, their third son, later became a funeral director and embalmer in the family business. Martin and Billie purchased the Stanley Jones Funeral Home from Joyce Stanley in 1962 and changed the name to White Funeral Home. Martin and Billie continued to operate the funeral home and emergency ambulance service for all of Lynn County.

Billie decided to get a degree from Texas Tech University in Education. She attended Texas Tech plus working funerals and manning the ambulance service from 1966 to 1969. In 1970 she became the first Distributive Education teacher at Tahoka High School, having launched the new program. She taught only one year due to the demands of the funeral business. On September 4, 1972, Martin died unexpectedly of a brain tumor. Billie hired Rufus Gerner from Spur to work as her Funeral Director and Embalmer. Rufus remained with the firm all the years of her ownership.

Billie remarried in 1975 to Warren Embree and he preceded her in death in 1979. Billie then renewed her contact with her childhood sweetheart from Snyder, Don Everett. They married in 1983 and split time between the ranch in Gail and the funeral home in Tahoka. Gary returned home after graduating from the Dallas Institute of Funeral Service in 1984. During this time Billie and Don opened a satellite location in O’Donnell in 1985. They further expanded by building a new funeral home in Idalou in 1987. Edell Moore and Alton Rose decided to sell their business in Floydada and Lockney. Billie and Don purchased Moore-Rose Funeral Home from Alton and Edell in 1988. Another opportunity arose in 1994 to purchase the former Henderson-Singleton Funeral Home building in Lubbock, and the couple added their fifth location.

In 1983 Billie was named Funeral Director of the Year by the West Texas Funeral Directors Association. She also served as the first woman President of the West Texas region and was also on the Board of Directors of the Texas Funeral Directors Association (TFDA).

Billie and Don decided to retire in 2010 and sold the funeral homes to her nephew, Kevin Combest. Don passed away on October 21, 2010, of a heart attack. Billie moved to Raider Ranch in Lubbock for seven years, then to Lynnwood Care Facility in Tahoka before being transferred to Wilshire Place in Lubbock, where she passed away peacefully.

Those left to honor and cherish her memory include her three sons: Richard Martin White, Randy Lee White and Gary Clifton White; one daughter, Kimberly Ann Albrecht; two sisters: Bobbie Combest and Clynice Baker; eight grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. Billie was preceded in death by her parents, husbands and three sisters, Doris Turner, Linda Hitchcock and Verna Ingle.

Visitation for Billie will be held from 6 PM to 7:30 PM on Thursday, April 24, 2025, in the Combest Family Memorial Chapel in Lubbock. Funeral services will be held at 2 PM on Friday, April 25, 2025, in the Combest Family Memorial Chapel in Lubbock. Rev. Calvin Gray will be the officiant. Final rites and interment will follow in the City of Lubbock Cemetery under the personal care and direction of Combest Family Funeral Home.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you kindly consider donating to the Ranching Heritage Center, 3121 4th Street, Lubbock, TX 79409.